DILEMMA: SHOULD WE BRING BACK EXTINCT ANIMALS?
THE BIG DEBATE:
Should we bring back
extinct animals?
OPINION
“Many animals are gone
because of human error, so
we need to use technology to
recover them.” – Katsuhiko
Hayashi, Biologist at Kyushu
University, Japan
Friday 17th March 2017
THE DILEMMA
news debate
Scientists have recently announced they are on the brink of resurrecting the
woolly mammoth, a huge beast that roamed the Earth some 4,000 years ago.
The scientist leading the “de-extinction” effort said that a team of experts from
Harvard University in the US is just two years away from creating a hybrid embryo.
This embryo would see elements of the woolly mammoth programmed into an
Asian elephant. The mammoth genes are spliced into the elephant DNA using
a “gene-editing” tool. The embryo would be partly an elephant, but include
mammoth features such as small ears, long shaggy hair and cold-adapted blood.
The idea of bringing extinct animals back to life using science has been
discussed for years, but with major
advancements in DNA technology,
what were once dreams are now
becoming realities. In 2003, a team
of Spanish and French scientists
brought a kind of wild goat known
as a bucardo, or Pyrenean ibex, back
from extinction (but it only survived
for a few minutes). The debate has
gone on ever since. Is it right to bring
back animals that once roamed the
Earth? Or should we not meddle with
nature, even if we can? And shouldn’t
Could woolly mammoths roam
we focus on preserving those that are
the Earth once more?
DNA – Deoxyribonucleic acid, which carries the genetic code of a living thing. This code GENES – Units that carry the information that determines an animal or human’s
makes one living thing distinctive from another.
features or characteristics. Genes can determine everything from eye colour to
behaviour. They are passed down from generation to generation.
EXTINCTION – When an animal no longer exists. Causes of extinction can be
natural or caused by human activity.
NATURAL EXTINCTION RATE – What the rate of extinctions would be if
humans were not around.
EMBRYO – An unborn animal in the very early stages of growth.
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DILEMMA: SHOULD WE BRING BACK EXTINCT ANIMALS?
Friday 17th March 2017
CANDIDATE ANIMALS
news debate
If scientists are to go ahead with de-extinction (reversing extinction), probably their biggest dilemma will
be deciding which species to bring back. What makes one animal deserve to be brought back to life more
than another?
Well, some scientists reckon that an animal’s usefulness to the wider ecosystem (a community of
organisms that interact with each other) plays a big part in deciding whether efforts should be made to
bring it back. If one species is responsible for the wellbeing and survival of lots of other species, some
scientists think it is worth de-extincting it.
Another factor that some scientists think is important is timescale. If an animal became extinct more than
50 years ago, they argue, it would no longer fit in naturally on Earth, as the environment has changed so
much.
facts & figures
HERE ARE SOME OF THE LIKELY DE-EXTINCTION CANDIDATES:
Moa This large bird was unable to fly and used to be
The rapid loss of species we are seeing today is estimated by
experts to be between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than
the natural extinction rate.
very common in New Zealand until its extinction around
600 years ago due to hunting and deforestation. The moa’s
absence has had a direct effect on plants that relied on it to
spread seeds. They are struggling to survive. It could be a
successful de-extinction candidate, because the area where
it lived doesn’t have many other species living there, so the
moa could flourish once more. But the moa’s genes are so
unique that it would be difficult to find an animal to host the
embryo and give birth to the baby moa.
It is estimated that more than 5 BILLION species that once
existed on Earth have become extinct.
There are nearly 100 animals on the World Wide Fund
for Nature (WWF) list of critically endangered, endangered,
vulnerable or near threatened species.
Around 100 species disappear from our planet every day,
according to some estimates.
Scientists think at least 10 animal species have been made
extinct in the past 200 years due to human activity.
A Cuban stamp
celebrating the moa
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DILEMMA: SHOULD WE BRING BACK EXTINCT ANIMALS?
Friday 17th March 2017
CANDIDATE ANIMALS
news debate
SOME OF THE LIKELY DE-EXTINCTION CANDIDATES CONTINUED:
Dodo Probably the most famous of all extinct
The dodo
animals, this ground bird gave birth to the expression
“dead as a dodo”. Resident on the island of Mauritius,
the dodo was flightless like the moa and became
extinct in the 17th century due to exploitation by
humans and due to introduced species such as rats
and pigs, which ate dodo eggs. In 2002, scientists
worked out that the dodo belongs in the dove and
pigeon family, and so may be easier to bring back than
previously thought. The dodo is less significant in terms
of the ecosystem, but it is probably the most popular
extinct animal.
Lesser stick-nest rat
The auroch
If the only reason to bring back an extinct animal is for its benefit to other creatures, the
lesser stick-nest rat would be a top contender. It is thought it became extinct in the last
few decades, after playing an important role in the Australian desert, where it built large
nests using sticks. Some were as tall as one metre and three metres long. These nests
became a home to loads of other creatures, from insects to reptiles. According to one
expert, a large population of these rats could be built up in just 5-10 years if it were deextincted.
Aurochs
A type of wild “supercow”, for thousands of years the aurochs were
the largest land mammals in Europe, until humans reduced their numbers. The last of the
aurochs died in Poland in 1627, which was one of the first recorded cases of extinction.
Experts now say that the loss of the aurochs had a terrible effect on the overall variety of
wildlife in Europe. They say that the aurochs’ large appetite for grazing provided a natural
“gardening service” that maintained landscapes and created the conditions for other
species to thrive.
These frogs, which lived in Australia, were known for their ‘gastric
brooding’, where eggs were kept in the stomach of the female until the
tadpoles were ready to leave through her mouth. The trouble is these
frogs were probably made extinct because of a fungus in the wild that still
exists, so they might not last very long if they’re brought back to Earth.
A quagga at London Zoo in 1870
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Gastric brooding frogs
Quagga A sub-species of the zebra, the quagga
lived in South Africa until the 19th century. It looked like
a cross between a zebra and a horse, with brown and
white stripes on the head and neck, brown upper parts
and a white belly, tail and legs. There were quaggas kept
at London Zoo, but they became extinct in the wild due to
hunting.
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DILEMMA: SHOULD WE BRING BACK EXTINCT ANIMALS?
Friday 17th March 2017
how it’s done
news debate
Cloning – The “Jurassic Park technique”, this involves
taking a sample of DNA from a part of the extinct animal, which
could be found in a fossil, or in bones kept in a museum. The
animal’s complete set of genes (known as a genome) is then
reconstructed. This is an enormous task. The embryo would
then need to be developed inside a mum who would have to
come from an existing species that is as close as possible to the
extinct one.
DNA
Genetic Engineering – This would be
Dolly the cloned
sheep
The first clone of a living animal was Dolly the sheep in 1996. Since
then, scientists have cloned numerous creatures, including camels,
cats, monkeys and rabbits. Creating new versions of extinct animals is
a little trickier, as the species isn’t around to take DNA from, or to act
as a parent for the newborn animal.
Biotechnology is the name given to the type of science that would be
used to bring extinct animals back to life. Here are the main three deextinction methods:
possible for more recently extinct animals. If a close relative
of a lost species is still alive, scientists can alter the genome to
“reverse engineer” the extinct species. One species that might
be brought back to life this way is the passenger pigeon, which
has been extinct since 1914. Scientists would use its closest
living relative, the band-tailed pigeon, and study the genome
of it and the extinct bird. They’d work out the differences and
then alter the genome of the band-tailed pigeon to genetically
engineer a new bird that is identical to the passenger pigeon.
But there isn’t any guarantee that the new passenger pigeon
would have the same behaviour as the original.
The passenger pigeon
Cross-breeding – This method involves
creating a species by getting existing species to mate in order
to gradually restore the genome and physical make-up of the
extinct animal. Scientists are developing this technique to bring
back the aurochs, and they think this could be a better way of
de-extincting, because it would use animals that are already
adapted to the modern world, rather than trying to recreate an
animal from a very different time.
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DILEMMA: SHOULD WE BRING BACK EXTINCT ANIMALS?
WHAT ABOUT THE LIVING?
De-extincting is all well and good, but it’s expensive and time-consuming.
There are scientists who think that resources, money and time would
be better spent trying to keep our endangered species alive. There are
several animals at risk of extinction, such as rhinos, the orangutan and the
Bengal tiger. Instead of focusing on bringing back those that have already
gone, should science not be putting all its efforts into protecting those
who still live?
Friday 17th March 2017
The orangutan is at
risk of extinction
news debate
THE DANGERS OF ‘PLAYING GOD’
Is it up to humans to ‘play God’ by controlling life in this way? Some people think that just because
we can, it doesn’t mean we should. They argue that, although some species have become extinct
due to human behaviour and climate change, many have not, and it is not our place to control and
change the course of nature. Is it a good thing to decide which animals from Earth’s past get to live
again, and which don’t?
There is also an unintentional danger that comes with ‘playing God’. Many animals that are now
extinct lived hundreds of years ago, when Earth was a very different place. They roamed the planet
at a time before factories, planes and cars, when the population was much smaller than today’s 7.5
billion. A lot of extinct animals may not be able to cope on Earth any more.
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DILEMMA: SHOULD WE BRING BACK EXTINCT ANIMALS?
Friday 17th March 2017
news debate
YES, WE SHOULD BRING
BACK EXTINCT ANIMALS
NO, WE SHOULDN’T BRING
BACK EXTINCT ANIMALS
1. The science learned will be huge – The processes by which
1. Let’s focus on preventing extinction – So many species
scientists could bring back extinct animals would signal a major leap forward
for science. We can learn so many useful skills and techniques that could be
applied to other areas of science.
are at risk of extinction right now. Our efforts and money would be better
spent protecting endangered animals rather than bringing back those
who have already gone.
2. Humans should make up for past mistakes – Humans
2. The animals may not cope well – It’s dangerous to ‘play
have contributed a great deal of pollution to Earth, and human activity, such
as hunting, has been directly responsible for some extinctions. Bringing back
animals that have been wiped out by our actions is the least we can do.
god’. We could have good intentions, but bringing back some animals to a
new and very different planet than the one they once lived on could harm
them. They may not survive very long.
3. It would be great to see these animals back – How
3. We should not mess with nature – Extinctions are an
excellent would it be to see extinct animals roaming the Earth again? They
can contribute to the wider ecosystem and help other animals and plants
thrive.
unfortunate aspect of life on a planet such as Earth that contains so many
different species. It is not up to humans to interfere with nature’s course.
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DILEMMA: SHOULD WE BRING BACK EXTINCT ANIMALS?
Friday 17th March 2017
discussion questions
news debate
What should our priority be:
protecting the living animals
or bringing back the dead
ones?
Should scientists try to bring
back animals made extinct
only by human behaviour?
Would you be interested in
seeing extinct animals like the
dodo or quagga on Earth once
more?
If it’s okay for humans to stop
sick animals from dying, is it
all right for humans to bring
back extinct animals?
Do some animals deserve
to be brought back from
extinction more than others?
Is cloning animals acceptable
or could it be dangerous?
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