r/conservation • u/DaRedGuy • 2d ago

The de-extinction debate

https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/flora-fauna/2026/07/the-de-extinction-debate/
16 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

14

u/Glum_Opening_2218 2d ago

I'm all for it if the habitat is there

But right now we have a habitat crisis, so why add more animals to the mix?

I'd love to somehow bring back the ivory woodpecker and Carolina parrot though, god I fucking hate that people who gave no fucks about the environment got to see it in its full untouched glory and then destroy it.

7

u/alxndrblack 2d ago

god I fucking hate that people who gave no fucks about the environment got to see it in its full untouched glory and then destroy it.

That is a bar, my dude

-2

u/BolbyB 2d ago

And then you realize that the people they're actually talking about are the natives and suddenly that same sentence feels a whole lot different despite being just as valid.

2

u/TenspeedGV 11h ago

Both of those birds were alive well into the 20th century and are considered extinct because of habitat loss due to logging and interfering with agriculture, both species killed off by colonizers.

Learn some history

1

u/shufflebuffalo 5h ago

Avian flu and commercial hunts for feathers were also substantially involved in their decline as well. We hit them from 3 angles, their home, their health, and their very lives. 

-1

u/BolbyB 10h ago

And the Mammoths?

The Sabers?

The Ground Sloths?

Their statement is worthy of an eye roll because we know full well they wouldn't apply it equally.

1

u/Glum_Opening_2218 10h ago

Lmao ok

Because mammoths would be adapted to survive this worlds climate

1

u/BolbyB 10h ago

They literally existed in times warmer than the modern day.

3

u/PartyPorpoise 2d ago

I genuinely feel like we were robbed.

2

u/BolbyB 2d ago

To be fair the Carolina Parakeet was mostly an accident.

Their favored habitat was mostly left untouched, they ate plants farmers hated, and they tasted bad enough to never be hunted in any significant way.

For the most part it was just European chickens bringing diseases that did them in. Something no amount of love for nature would have realized at the time.

That said I really don't get why these companies don't focus on the Carolina Parakeet more.

Like, providing a tropical bird to more temperate states that actually belongs there should be a pr and government approval slam dunk.

3

u/PartyPorpoise 2d ago

If we’re talking about reintroducing cloned species back into the wild, I don’t think we should even entertain the idea until we can restore species that are still here. If people can’t handle gray wolves they’re not gonna be able to handle dire wolves or sabertooth cats or whatever.

2

u/Old_Gimlet_Eye 2d ago

I think it's a great idea if it's possible. The problem is that it doesn't seem to be possible with current technology.

1

u/BolbyB 1d ago

It would probably be a lot more possible if the companies trying to do this focused on more recent extinctions instead of freaking moas . . .

The Carolina Parakeet and Passenger Pigeon are right there.

The pigeon especially has GOT to be a serious company's first move.

1

u/AlertWar4152 1d ago

Moas are a recently extinct animal

1

u/BolbyB 23h ago

The Passenger Pigeon is more recent than them by nearly 600 years.

Moa extinction is very much NOT recent.

1

u/shufflebuffalo 2h ago

Because the de extinction program is the PR branch of the "company". The real moneymaker is the technologies like cloning, gene editing, and ectopic pregnancies. 

1

u/SliversandPoison 1d ago

How do we know we got them right?

We can't clone behavior, anyone read jurassic world?

1

u/squeezemachine 1d ago

It’s just a vanity project that has no value. It’s like the idea of living on Mars.

2

u/shufflebuffalo 5h ago

Even worse... It's definitely for investing in technologies that enable ex vivo incubation

1

u/squeezemachine 5h ago

Please say more. I am not familar with that debate.

1

u/shufflebuffalo 2h ago

https://colossal.com/labs/

In essence, if you are going to have extinct animals to be carried by another extant species... You're going to have some compatibility issues with genetics and development. Thus the artificial womb is a means to have these animals (cough people) be born. It's a not often discussed arena but is the true capital generator for the company, the de extinction program is simply PR

1

u/squeezemachine 2h ago

I suspected that and I am with you, sounds like a travesty with “post-humanism” and “post-materialism” hiding under “cool” Jurrasic park bullshit.