Image of a wooly mammoth walking through a snowy landscape

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Should We Bring Back the Woolly Mammoth?

Soon it might be possible to come face-to-face with extinct animals. Is that really a good idea?  

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    What if you could go back in time to the year 25,000 b.c.? You’d see a world very different from the one we live in now.

    There would be no towns, cities, schools, or streets. There’s a good chance all you’d see for miles is ice and snow. Maybe you’d spot some humans around a fire. They’d be wrapped in fur and leather to stay warm

    This time period was part of the most recent Ice Age. And woolly mammoths were the kings. These furry, elephant-like creatures stomped through snow in some of the coldest parts of the world. They had long trunks and sharp, curved tusks

    The last of these furry giants died out about 4,000 years ago. But traces of them can still be found. In fact, entire mammoth bodies have been discovered in Canada and Siberia. (That’s an area in Russia with very cold temperatures.)

    Now scientists at a company called Colossal are trying to bring the woolly mammoth back to life. They hope to do it by 2027

    But is bringing back extinct creatures really a good idea?

All About Genes

    Bringing back extinct creatures is known as de-extinction. For a long time, the idea belonged in science fiction. But now new technology has made de-extinction possible.

    How does de-extinction work? To understand it, you have to start with genes.

    Genes are the parts of your cells that decide your traits. Traits are things like the color of your hair, the size of your feet, and how tall you are. All living things have genes. 

    Scientists at Colossal studied genes taken from those frozen mammoth bodies found in Siberia. They figured out which genes gave the mammoths their shaggy coats and thick body fat. Now they plan to put those genes into cells from elephants. 

    From those cells, they’ll create an embryo. (that’s the first stage of an animal’s development.) That embryo will then be either put into a female elephant or grown in a lab. 

    The end result would be a creature that’s part mammoth and part elephant. 

Image of a preserved woolly mammoth displayed in a museum

Dickson Lee/South China Morning Post via Getty Images

Frozen in Time  
Scientists study mammoth bodies that have been found frozen. This baby, named Lyuba, died more than 40,000 years ago.

Big Questions

    Ben Lamm helped found Colossal. He thinks bringing back mammoths will get people excited to learn about themand our world. “People have a childlike wonder to see what used to be here,” he says

    But de-extinction raises a lot of questions. The biggest one is: Should humans be messing with nature?

    Some scientists say no. They believe it’s dangerous to bring mammoths back without knowing what could happen. Where would these mammoths live? Could they survive in our warmer world? Would we be bringing them back just to keep them in zoos and labs

    Plus, there are many endangered animals already here on Earth. Shouldn’t we put our time and money into saving them? 

    It’s hard to say. But here’s another idea: Maybe scientists can focus on inventing time travel. That way, we could see any creature from any time period.

    Field trip to the Ice Age, anyone? 

The Great Condor Comeback

Forty years ago, the California condor was about to die out. This is the story of how scientists saved it

Image of a condor with spread wings

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The California Condor’s wingspan can be nearly 10 feet!

    Have you ever seen a California condor

    They’re North America’s biggest birds. People sometimes mistake them for planes when they fly across the sky. Up close, they look a little funny. Their bald pink heads stick out from a ring of fluffy black feathers

    Seeing one is actually a rare treat. But it’s not as rare as it used to be.

    Back in 1982, only 22 of these condors remained in the wild. Sadly, humans were to blame. In the 1800s and early 1900s, people hunted many condors. Later, power lines became a danger. Condors would fly into them and get shocked and killed.

    Many condors have also died because of their diet. These giant birds mostly eat dead animals. That means they often feast on wildlife killed by humans.

    In many cases, these animals are killed with bullets made of a soft, heavy metal called lead. When condors eat the animals, they also eat pieces of the lead bullets. The lead builds up in condors’ bodies—and poisons them to death.  

Catch and Release

Image of two humans released a condor into the wild

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Flying Free  
Many condors have been released into the wild since the 1990s.

    To help condors, scientists came up with a plan. They captured all the wild condors and moved them to captivity. That way the birds could stay safe as they raised their babies. 

    Not everyone agreed with the plan. Didn’t the birds have a right to freedom? Would being born in captivity change condors’ habits?

    But the program worked. Condors were released back into their habitats starting in 1992. Today, there are more than 550 California condors in the world. About 350 live in the wild. 

    The problems That led to condors almost dying out are being fixed too. Hunters are told to stop using lead bullets. Groups are working to clean up plastic trash, which baby condors can choke on. And captive condors are being trained on how to avoid power lines.

    Maybe we could learn something from the condor’s comeback. It didn’t require messing with genes—just patience and hard work. 

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