Vikash Tatayah had never heard of Colossal Biosciences until the Texas-based company announced plans to bring the dodo back to life last year. The group, widely seen as trying to “exterminate” the woolly mammoth, says it is making great strides in genetically engineering the dodo-like bird and will take it to Mauritius, one of the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean and the dodo’s only habitat. On the verge of extinction.
Tataya, conservation officer at the Mauritius Wildlife Foundation, has worked for decades to conserve the island’s endemic species, from the Mauritian fruit bat to the pink pigeon, a relative of the dodo. So he was surprised that his organization was not involved in the process and was somewhat skeptical about the motivations behind the multi-million dollar project. “I said first, ‘Please wait a moment.’ Mauritius has many other endangered plant and animal species. That money could have been better spent.’”
Whether genetic engineering should be used for conservation is still controversial, and many people are particularly wary of de-extinction. But a year later, Tatayah sees the dodo’s potential return as a way to simultaneously save endangered species, especially the pink dove. “We are very hopeful that the dodo will come back,” he says.
It is often overlooked that the biotech innovations that Colossal and others are working on may have important side benefits. They could pave the way for using genetic tools to help diverse animals resist the pressures they face in changing environments. “The pace of change is faster than natural evolution…
