After successfully bringing the dire wolf back from extinction, scientists at the Colossal Biosciences company in Dallas now have a list of animals they want to bring back to present day Earth. 

Some animals on their list are the woolly mammoth, the dodo, and the Tasmanian tiger using cloning and genetic engineering techniques. They have already successfully copied the woolly mammoth’s DNA to create a woolly mouse which has the same long, golden coat of the mammoth and accelerated fat metabolism.  

They are hoping that bringing back mammoths will help lead them towards new ways to protect the endangered Asian elephants. The program could help expand the Asian elephant habitat and help with scientific study of them. 

The biggest problem about bringing these animals back is whether or not these pre-historic creatures would be safe in our current world. With current signs of global warming, people are worried that we are bringing back these wondrous creatures only for them to go through a second extinction. 

People also argue that they are focusing on the wrong type of animals. “There are so many species going extinct today. We’re actually not going to be able to help any of them if we’re thinking about the woolly mammoth. We need to focus on the species here today. Living animals versus fossils is really where our focus should be.” said Gabriela Mastromonaco, a senior direction of wildlife science at the Toronto Zoo. 

Despite these protests, the employees at Colossal disagree. “Some people think it’s a bad idea because there will be only one lonely cold-adapted elephant. Thats not our intention. It’s to have them fully socialized in large herds. Some people think it’s a bad idea because it takes money away from conversation efforts, when in fact we’re injecting money into conversation efforts,” George Church, cofounder of Colossal and a geneticist at Harvard University, said.