American Company Aims to Bring Back the Dodo Bird

American Company Aims to Bring Back the Dodo Bird

More investors¹ are supporting a biotechnology company working on ways to bring back animals that have died off.

Some scientists, however, are doubtful such research efforts are possible — or even a good idea.

Colossal² Biosciences first announced its plan to bring back a hairy ancestor of today's elephants, known as the woolly mammoth³, two years ago. Recently, the company said it wanted to bring back the dodo bird: a large, flightless bird.

"The dodo is a symbol of man-made extinction⁴," said Ben Lamm of Colossal Biosciences. The company has formed a special group that works on bird-related genetic⁵ technologies.

The last dodo was killed in 1681 on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.

Colossal Biosciences is based in the city of Dallas, Texas. It started operations in 2021. Recently, the company announced it had raised an additional $150 million in financing. To date, it has raised $225 million from many investors that include United States Innovative⁶ Technology Fund, Breyer Capital and In-Q-Tel, an organization supporting national security agencies.

The possibility of bringing the dodo back is not expected to directly make money, said Lamm. But the genetic tools and equipment that the company develops to try to do it may have other uses, including for human health care, he said.

For example, Colossal Biosciences is now testing tools to change several parts of the genome at the same time. It is also working on technologies for what is sometimes called an "artificial womb," he said.

The dodo's closest living relative is the Nicobar pigeon, said Beth Shapiro, a scientific advisor⁷ with the bioscience company.

She has been studying the dodo for 20 years. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz and receives financial support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). The organization also supports The Associated Press' Health and Science Department.

Shapiro's team plans to study DNA⁸ differences between the Nicobar pigeon and the dodo to understand "what are the genes⁹ that really make a dodo a dodo," she said.

The team may then attempt to change Nicobar pigeon cells to make them seem like dodo cells. It may be possible to put the changed cells into developing eggs of other birds, such as pigeons or chickens. Then the birds might create young that could naturally produce dodo eggs, said Shapiro. The idea is not yet fully¹⁰ developed.

Shapiro said animals are a product of both their genetics and their environment — which has changed a lot since the 1600s. She added, "it's not possible to recreate a 100% identical copy of something that's gone."

Other scientists wonder if it is even a good idea to attempt to recreate species that have died off. They question whether such efforts take attention and money away from attempts to save living species.

There is a real risk "in saying that if we destroy nature, we can just put it back together again — because we can't," said Duke University's Stuart Pimm, who has no connection with the company.

"And where on Earth would you put a woolly mammoth, other than in a cage?" Pimm said. He also said that the environment where mammoths lived disappeared long ago.

Biologists who know about captive breeding programs say that it can be difficult for zoo-bred animals to live in the wild.

Boris Worm is a biologist with the University of Dalhousie in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is also not linked to Colossal Biosciences.

He said animals need to learn from other wild animals of their kind — something that dodos and mammoths would not be able to do.

"Preventing species from going extinct in the first place should be our priority, and in most cases, it's a lot cheaper," he said.

Words in This Story

dodo bird – n. a kind of bird that lived in the past and that was large, heavy, and unable to fly

symbol –n. an object or sign that represents an idea or that stands for something else

extinction – n. the state or situation that results when something (such as a plant or animal species) has died out completely

genome – n. the complete set of genes and genetic material in an organism

womb – n. the organ in women and some female animals in which babies develop before birth

species –n. (also pl.) a group of animals or plants that are similar and can produce offspring of the same kind

captive breeding –n. the activity of keeping animals so they produce more young in a zoo or a place where they are not in natural conditions but in controlled ones

cheaper –comparative adj. less costly than something else

1 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

2 colossal   

adj.异常的，庞大的

参考例句：

• There has been a colossal waste of public money.一直存在巨大的公款浪费。
• Some of the tall buildings in that city are colossal.那座城市里的一些高层建筑很庞大。

3 mammoth   

n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的

参考例句：

• You can only undertake mammoth changes if the finances are there.资金到位的情况下方可进行重大变革。
• Building the new railroad will be a mammoth job.修建那条新铁路将是一项巨大工程。

4 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。

5 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

6 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

7 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

8 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

9 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

10 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。