CNN
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The giant, flightless species of birds that once inhabited New Zealand disappeared about 600 years ago, shortly after human settlers first arrived on the country’s two major islands. Now, the Texas-based biotech company says it has plans to get it back.
Genetic engineering startup Colossal Biosciences has added a huge South Island MOA. This is a powerful, long-necked species 10 feet tall (3 meters) and could have kicked self-defense.
When the company announced its birth in April that it was described as three miserable wolf puppies, it sparked widespread excitement, as well as the controversy. The giant scientist said they finally revived dog predators 10,000 years ago by using ancient DNA, cloning and gene editing techniques to alter the genetic makeup of gray wolves. Similar efforts to regain wool mammoths, dodos and tyracin, known as the Tasmanian Tiger, are also ongoing.
To restore MOA, Colossal Biosciences announced on Tuesday that it will work with New Zealand’s Ngāi Tahu Research Center, an institution based at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The project involves first recovering and analyzing ancient DNA from nine MOA species and understanding how giant MOAs (Dinornis robustus) differ from living relatives to decode their unique genetic structure, according to the company’s statement.
“We have so much knowledge to unlock and share our journey to regaining our iconic MOA,” said Ben Lamm, CEO and co-founder of Colossal Biosciences in a statement. For example, the company said that investigating the genomes of all MOA species is “valuable in informing conservation efforts and understanding the role of human activity in the loss of biodiversity.”
Colossal, which has raised at least $435 million since it was founded by Rum and Harvard Geneticist George’s Church in 2021, has committed a “major investment” in New Zealand, the company said without providing further details. New Zealand-born Director of the Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson is one of the company’s well-known investors, but is also involved in the project. According to the Associated Press, he has one of the largest private collections of MOA bones.
Scott McDougal Shackleton, co-founder and director of the Western University of Western University in London, Ontario, said that the MOA has been extinct in the past few hundred years, which meant that it had extensive bones, eggshell fragments and even feathers that could be studied. He was not involved in the research.
“The main explanation for their extinction is the hunting and habitat changes after the Polynesian people arrive on the island,” he explained in an email.
“Ahead of this, they had few predators,” he said. “This is a pattern of flightless birds on an island with little protection against hunting or predation (like Dodos).”
The idea of reviving such species was “intelligently interesting, but in reality it should be a low priority,” MacDougall-Sackleton said. “If you’re worried about conserving island birds, New Zealand, Hawaii and other Pacific islands have hundreds of endangered and endangered species in other Pacific islands that require more urgent conservation resources.”
As part of the project, Colossal said it will launch an ecological restoration project in New Zealand, focusing on rehabilitation of potential MOA habitats while supporting existing native species.
Many scientists argue that while Colossal researchers are working in the field of genetic engineering, it is truly impossible to revive extinct animals. Critics suggest that extinction can be reversed through technological risks that undermine the urgency of savings in existing species and ecosystems.
Lamm, CEO of Colossal, told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria last month that Biotechnology Colossal would be used to develop and rescue animals that are in danger of extinction and already disappeared. For example, Colossal said it uses a new invasive approach to cloning developed during Dire Wolf Research to produce two liters of cloned red wolves, the most highly endangered wolf species.
“I think we can have a scalable detension system that doesn’t replace conservation, but it’s kind of an extra backup that I think is necessary, especially in these disastrous cases,” Lamb said.
Scott Edwards, professor of organic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University’s museum and curator of ornithology, said he was excited about the project.
“It’s important that science reaches out to the stars, and you know, I understand the ethical concerns about (recovering these birds) especially if there’s no place for them,” said Edwards, who was not involved in the project. “But if that goes well, it will impress humanity about how much we have lost.”
