Latest news with #WolfConservationCenter
The Independent
23-04-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Have dire wolves been brought back from extinction? Not quite
Call them dire wolves. Don't call them dire wolves. Colossal Biosciences, the biotechnology company from Dallas, Texas, that wants to de-extinct the woolly mammoth and dodo, doesn't care what you call Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi – just that they're here. 'We're going to call them de-extinct dire wolves. You can call them proxy dire wolves or Colossal dire wolves. Or, you can call them gray wolves with 20 edits that recreate functional dire wolves in the ecosystems of today,' Colossal's chief scientist and evolutionary biologist Dr. Beth Shapiro told The Independent. Colossal, which calls itself 'the world's first and only de-extinction company,' says that de-extincting the dire wolves is a stride forward on the treadmill of scientific progress — but frustrated conservation groups say the gene-edited wolves are a part of the problem. The Colossal dire wolves were made using gray wolves' genetic information and by extracting ancient DNA from fossils found in Ohio and Idaho. But, in the wild, gray wolves are struggling. They're being hunted, and have lost their natural habitat. 'It's frustrating that there's time and energy devoted to bringing back an animal when we have gray wolves already,' Regan Downey, the Wolf Conservation Center's director of education, told The Independent. A keystone species that helps to keep the balance in their ecosystem, gray wolves stand to lose federal protections. The House Natural Resources Committee passed a bill that would remove the animals from the endangered species list. 'Let's make sure that they're not going extinct,' Downey urged. Many conservationists raise valid ethical concerns when it comes to the whole concept of de-extinction. The dire wolves are coming to a greatly changed planet, stricken by the human condition: climate change, pollution, and much of the issues that have led to our biodiversity crisis and the sixth mass extinction. Multiple studies have painted a bleak outlook for Earth's wildlife in the coming decades, with some more adapted to a warming or changing world than others. Dire wolves have obviously not adapted to this changing world, and Downey noted that it was 'upsetting' the de-extinct wolves were created without a place in the American landscape for them. Through widespread criticism about its projects, Colossal asserts that conservation is at the heart of its decision-making and that its work represents an opportunity to improve stability in ecosystems. In its announcement of the dire wolves' birth, other fascinating news did not get the same headline attention: Colossal had cloned two litters of red wolves. Red wolves are the most critically endangered wolf in the world; only 16 of them still exist in the wild. Currently 270 red wolves are living in captivity, with plans for them to be released. Wolf Conservation Center senior research scientist Dr. Joseph Hinton said in a statement that the immediate concern for the survival of red wolves is threats like cars or hunters, which cloning doesn't protect them from. 'Cloning is a solution in search of a problem that doesn't exist for red wolves,' he said. The new litters of red wolves may look more like dire wolves were believed to have appeared tens of thousands of years ago. In previous renderings, dire wolves are shown with reddish brown coats and gnashing teeth. They were not just ancient versions of gray wolves – although a pre-print Colossal's scientists published this week suggests they were much more 'wolf-like' than previously thought. As big as the largest of the modern gray wolves, the carnivorous ancient canids that roamed the Americas were closely related to today's jackals. They feasted on horses, ground sloths, bison, and camels. Their life span, however, is similar to modern wolves: typically under a decade. 'Dire wolves are very much the dominant species of canine during the Ice Age. And, at the end of the Ice Age around 13,000 years ago, dire wolves became extinct,' explained Los Angeles County Natural History Museum Vertebrate Paleontology Curator Dr. Xiaoming Wang, 'possibly because their prey are disappearing which was maybe related to humans.' He said the cause of their extinction is controversial, and tied to climate change and species competition. When they disappeared, the gray wolf took over. But the Colossal's dire wolves will be different than their forefathers in all sorts of ways, says Wang. 'The three individuals that they managed to clone probably won't have the kind of behavior or repertoire that a normal dire wolf would have because a lot of the behavioral things are taught through parental care,' he noted. There are other aspects of the de-extinct dire wolves that may seem more likely in a Game of Thrones episode than a museum. The de-extinct dire wolves have a larger and stronger body and fuller coat. They're also white. Shapiro said that when they extracted DNA from the fossil they found and studied their genetic information, they saw that they had light-colored coats. Using edited cells that were implanted into surrogate dog mothers, Colossal was able to imbue those features onto six-month-olds Romulus and Remus, and their three-month-old sister Khaleesi. The wolves are kept on a secure ecological preserve that spans 2,000 acres in a secret location. Romulus and Remus are bigger than when they made those little howls in a video shared by Colossal. Now nearly fully sized, they playfully tramp around a grassy enclosure, unaware of the ethical controversies their births have created. So, is what Colossal doing good or bad? The reality is pretty murky. To conservationists, ultimately, the de-extinct dire wolves are a distraction from the gray and red wolves that need immediate help, funding, and support. Shapiro, who was part of the team that first retrieved dire-wolf DNA from fossils in 2021, said recent actions to revoke protections of gray wolves are 'terrible' and 'not what we need.' Even so, she said that the pace of change in the world is faster than evolution by natural selection can keep up with, and that the future of biodiversity conservation 'has to include some aspect of these biotechnologies.' Colossal's chief animal officer Matthew James says their efforts are complementary to species conservation work. 'I think one thing that's been lost so far … is this idea that we're pitching these technological platforms as a silver bullet solution for conservation, and that's not the case,' he said.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration is working to end habitat protections for endangered animals, environmental groups say
The Trump administration issued a proposed rule that environmental groups allege would end habitat protections for America's endangered animals. The proposal from the Department of the Interior and Department of Commerce would rescind the 1973 Endangered Species Act's definition of 'harm,' which means an act that actually kills or injures wildlife. The definition includes significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife by 'significantly impairing essential behavior patterns, including breeding, feeding, or sheltering." The departments argued in the Wednesday proposal that the regulatory definition runs contrary to the best meaning of the term 'take,' which is defined as 'to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect or attempt to engage in any such conduct.' While Republicans tout the change as eliminating a barrier to economic success, environmentalists say it could greatly harm the regions that protect America's more than 1,300 endangered species. 'This would pave the way for logging, mining, and other extractive activities, effectively destroying key habitat,' the Wolf Conservation Center wrote on social media. The Wolf Conservation Center wasn't the only group blasting the decision. 'This rule would open the door for destruction — plain and simple. By stripping away the definition of 'harm,' these agencies are trying to erase decades of legal precedent and scientific consensus that habitat loss is one of the greatest threats to imperiled and endangered species,' non-profit National Resources Defense Council Senior Project Attorney Lucas Rhoads told The Independent via email. 'If this rule goes into effect, bulldozing a nesting ground or draining a wetland could go unpunished — even if it results in the death of a species on the brink. This is an open invitation to drive America's most imperiled wildlife closer to extinction.' 'There's just no way to protect animals and plants from extinction without protecting the places they live, yet the Trump administration is opening the flood gates to immeasurable habitat destruction,' Noah Greenwald, co-director of endangered species at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. He noted that habitat destruction is the greatest cause of extinction. 'This administration's greed and contempt for imperiled wildlife know no bounds, but most Americans know that we destroy the natural world at our own peril. Nobody voted to drive spotted owls, Florida panthers or grizzly bears to extinction.' 'Without a prohibition on habitat destruction, spotted owls, sea turtles, salmon and so many more imperiled animals won't stand a chance,' he said. 'Trump is trying to drive a knife through the heart of the Endangered Species Act. We refuse to let him wipe out America's imperiled wildlife, and I believe the courts won't allow this radical assault on conservation.' Republicans have contended that amendments to the Endangered Species Act would halt a Biden-era 'litany of lawsuits' intended to 'create regulatory delays on infrastructure projects' environmental groups oppose, and House GOP members from southern states said they would investigate abuses of the act and its impact on energy costs. 'Left-wing activists love the status quo because it stops development, stops growth, and hurts the economy,' a White House official told The Independent. 'These groups use endangered species, sometimes ones that aren't actually endangered at all, as a fig leaf to stop all growth and hurt our economy. They do the same with ludicrous arguments that habitat will be impacted.' Right now, more than 1,300 endangered or threatened species reside in the U.S., including plants and animals. Climate change, which the White House is erasing from federal websites and reportedly plans to eliminate from research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is a major driver of habitat and species loss. So are other human activities that contribute to climate change, including pollution and deforestation. Roughly 1 million of Earth's species are now threatened with extinction in the coming years, thanks to these and other impacts. With the aim of protecting imperiled species, the Defenders of Wildlife has taken legal action. The non-profit Sierra Club pledged to defend the law, as well. 'In Donald Trump's world, future generations will know bald eagles, blue whales, grizzly bears, and other imperiled species only through photographs,' Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous told The Independent.
The Independent
16-04-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump administration is working to end habitat protections for endangered animals, environmental groups say
The Trump administration issued a proposed rule that environmental groups allege would end habitat protections for America's endangered animals. The proposal from the Department of the Interior and Department of Commerce would rescind the 1973 Endangered Species Act's definition of 'harm,' which means an act that actually kills or injures wildlife. The definition includes significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife by 'significantly impairing essential behavior patterns, including breeding, feeding, or sheltering." The departments argued in the Wednesday proposal that the regulatory definition runs contrary to the best meaning of the term 'take,' which is defined as 'to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect or attempt to engage in any such conduct.' While Republicans tout the change as eliminating a barrier to economic success, environmentalists say it could greatly harm the regions that protect America's more than 1,300 endangered species. 'This would pave the way for logging, mining, and other extractive activities, effectively destroying key habitat,' the Wolf Conservation Center wrote on social media. The Wolf Conservation Center wasn't the only group blasting the decision. 'This rule would open the door for destruction — plain and simple. By stripping away the definition of 'harm,' these agencies are trying to erase decades of legal precedent and scientific consensus that habitat loss is one of the greatest threats to imperiled and endangered species,' non-profit National Resources Defense Council Senior Project Attorney Lucas Rhoads told The Independent via email. 'If this rule goes into effect, bulldozing a nesting ground or draining a wetland could go unpunished — even if it results in the death of a species on the brink. This is an open invitation to drive America's most imperiled wildlife closer to extinction.' 'There's just no way to protect animals and plants from extinction without protecting the places they live, yet the Trump administration is opening the flood gates to immeasurable habitat destruction,' Noah Greenwald, co-director of endangered species at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. He noted that habitat destruction is the greatest cause of extinction. 'This administration's greed and contempt for imperiled wildlife know no bounds, but most Americans know that we destroy the natural world at our own peril. Nobody voted to drive spotted owls, Florida panthers or grizzly bears to extinction.' 'Without a prohibition on habitat destruction, spotted owls, sea turtles, salmon and so many more imperiled animals won't stand a chance,' he said. 'Trump is trying to drive a knife through the heart of the Endangered Species Act. We refuse to let him wipe out America's imperiled wildlife, and I believe the courts won't allow this radical assault on conservation.' Republicans have contended that amendments to the Endangered Species Act would halt a Biden-era 'litany of lawsuits' intended to 'create regulatory delays on infrastructure projects' environmental groups oppose, and House GOP members from southern states said they would investigate abuses of the act and its impact on energy costs. 'Left-wing activists love the status quo because it stops development, stops growth, and hurts the economy,' a White House official told The Independent. 'These groups use endangered species, sometimes ones that aren't actually endangered at all, as a fig leaf to stop all growth and hurt our economy. They do the same with ludicrous arguments that habitat will be impacted.' Right now, more than 1,300 endangered or threatened species reside in the U.S., including plants and animals. Climate change, which the White House is erasing from federal websites and reportedly plans to eliminate from research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is a major driver of habitat and species loss. So are other human activities that contribute to climate change, including pollution and deforestation. Roughly 1 million of Earth's species are now threatened with extinction in the coming years, thanks to these and other impacts. With the aim of protecting imperiled species, the Defenders of Wildlife has taken legal action. The non-profit Sierra Club pledged to defend the law, as well. 'In Donald Trump's world, future generations will know bald eagles, blue whales, grizzly bears, and other imperiled species only through photographs,' Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous told The Independent.
