Scientists should not revive extinct species

Woolly mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers, dodos and Chinese river dolphins, thylacines and passenger pigeons — these animals no longer walk the face of the Earth, but what if they could once again? 

In 2003, French and Spanish scientists brought an extinct animal called a bucardo, a cousin of the mountain goat, back to life by implanting eggs injected with bucardo DNA into a surrogate mother. The bucardo stayed alive for 10 short minutes.

With modern technological advances, though, scientists can now plausibly revive extinct species for good. At this point in time, however, they definitely should not.

Some species have gone extinct because their habitats no longer exist. For instance, even though woolly mammoths could theoretically walk across Arctic grassland again, does the Earth even have enough Arctic grassland anymore? About 10,000 years have passed since the mammoth’s extinction, and that grassland is now unproductive tundra that cannot support the same ecosystem as it did before. Even if scientists managed to revive enough woolly mammoths, they would most likely become extinct again.

Also, if mammoths were revived, then their presence could possibly disrupt whatever ecosystem has formed in their absence. Reviving an animal is essentially introducing a genetically engineered organism into a changed environment, and the consequences are unpredictable. 

De-extinction itself is unpredictable. Once the extinct animal is brought back, what then? Does it go into a zoo to be pointed at by small children? Does it go to a lab to be poked and prodded and injected? Does it go back into the wild to repopulate its species?

Ethically speaking, scientists bringing back extinct species would seemingly lessen the severity of an animal going extinct. People would care less about endangered animals; no one would have to worry about driving a species into extinction because scientists could just revive it. 

There are so many operational and ethical problems with de-extinction at the moment that trying to make it happen would be unwise. Scientists reaching the point where they could theoretically bring a mammoth back is a spectacular feat, but people are letting the excitement go to their heads. 

Reviving one bucardo took 57 implantations, and out of those 57 attempts, only one succeeded. Bringing back extinct species requires resources, time and money that could be spent protecting currently endangered animals. Instead of attempting to revive extinct species, scientists should focus on preventing even more animals from dying out.