U.S. business wants to bring back the moa.

[soylentgreen]

Could this be the answer to the high prices of eggs.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/11/de-extinction-extinct-giant-moa-bird-colossal-bioscience-aoe#:~:text=Reportedly backed by US$15,of its nearest surviving relatives,

.... the US start-up Colossal Biosciences has announced that the giant moa has joined the woolly mammoth, dodo and thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, on its list of animals that it is trying to bring back from the dead.
The Texas company says it is aiming to resurrect the extinct bird within five to 10 years, in partnership with the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury.

Reportedly backed by US$15m (£11m) of funding from the Lord of the Rings film-maker Sir Peter Jackson, who is an investor in Colossal Biosciences and an avid moa bone collector, the project will try to “de-extinct” the giant bird by harvesting DNA from fossils, then editing genes of its nearest surviving relatives, such as the emu. The genetically modified birds will be hatched out and released into enclosed “rewilding sites”, the company says.

 

[Phys251]

Could this be the answer to the high prices of eggs.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/11/de-extinction-extinct-giant-moa-bird-colossal-bioscience-aoe#:~:text=Reportedly backed by US$15,of its nearest surviving relatives,

That would cost way more than the production of eggs. And it involves science, so don't expect the US to invest in this.

 

[Loulit01]

Humans made the moa extinct so I have no problem with trying to bring them back.

 

[Grand Mal]

Humans made the moa extinct so I have no problem with trying to bring them back.

Made the dodo extinct too, which nearly led to the extinction of a tree species, whose seeds need to pass through a bird's digestives system to become viable. Had the tree species become extinct, who knows what that might have led to.
Short answer- don't **** with Mother Nature.

 

[Cosmo]

Made the dodo extinct too, which nearly led to the extinction of a tree species, whose seeds need to pass through a bird's digestives system to become viable. Had the tree species become extinct, who knows what that might have led to.
Short answer- don't **** with Mother Nature.

Take it easy! Species appear and disappear all the time.

How Many New Species Are Discovered Every Year?

Our world is full of unique plants and animals, and scientists are discovering new species each year. How many have they found?

www.worldatlas.com

Every year, an estimated 15,000 and 18,000 new species are discovered.

 

[Helix]

Resurrecting a species is a neat idea. That being said, if one wanted to doom a species to extinction, reducing its population to one breeding pair would be an effective way to do it. I'm not sure how genetic diversity would be reintroduced to the population.

 

[poppopfox]

Take it easy! Species appear and disappear all the time.

How Many New Species Are Discovered Every Year?

Our world is full of unique plants and animals, and scientists are discovering new species each year. How many have they found?

www.worldatlas.com

Every year, an estimated 15,000 and 18,000 new species are discovered.

 

[Grand Mal]

Take it easy! Species appear and disappear all the time.

How Many New Species Are Discovered Every Year?

Our world is full of unique plants and animals, and scientists are discovering new species each year. How many have they found?

www.worldatlas.com

Every year, an estimated 15,000 and 18,000 new species are discovered.

C'mon. We're talking about species of large animals with major impact on the ecosystem. What are you talking about?
There was a species of large tree on the island of Mauritius that seemed to be going extinct. They weren't dying but they weren't reproducing. The youngest ones were hundreds of years old. For some reason the seeds weren't germinating. Some American botanist took on the research and he tried feeding their seeds to turkeys. Voila! The seeds were viable! Turned out that the ships who stopped there to stock up on easy victuals, the dodo birds, had wiped out the birds and so had made it impossible for the trees to propagate.

 

[soylentgreen]

That would cost way more than the production of eggs. And it involves science, so don't expect the US to invest in this.

I believe the science part is being done in new zealand. It's the money part that is coming from america. Probably thanks to that big beutiful bill giving tax relief to corporations and the wealthy. Is it not wonderful to see how the wealthy are bringing benefits to you in creating things that you will really need like ten foot tall birds.

 

[Cosmo]

C'mon. We're talking about species of large animals with major impact on the ecosystem.

You're talking about a large flightless bird. There are plenty of large flightless birds still around. The moa was among the largest, so it's not surprising that it went extinct. Larger animals with slower reproductive rates are particularly at risk of dying out. It's just the way it is. There's an advantage to being small like roaches and rats. Maybe some tree relies on it. Maybe it will go extinct. Maybe it won't when some other animal fills in the gap created by the missing moa. Maybe the tree will go extinct and some other plant will take its place. Life on this planet didn't get to where it is by being hopelessly fragile. It got to where it is by being adaptive.

What are you talking about?
There was a species of large tree on the island of Mauritius that seemed to be going extinct. They weren't dying but they weren't reproducing. The youngest ones were hundreds of years old. For some reason the seeds weren't germinating. Some American botanist took on the research and he tried feeding their seeds to turkeys. Voila! The seeds were viable! Turned out that the ships who stopped there to stock up on easy victuals, the dodo birds, had wiped out the birds and so had made it impossible for the trees to propagate.

 

[joluoto]

Okay, but it better not be another "direwolf" hoax. At least the Moa's genome should be fully mapped. But knowing Colossal they will just ignore this, create a slightly larger ostrich and call it a Moa.

But I think we are focusing on the wrong things by trying to make extinct animals come back to life, instead of focusing on stopping more species from going extinct. For every species we lose the biodiversity of the planet suffers.

 

[Safiel]

Okay, but it better not be another "direwolf" hoax. At least the Moa's genome should be fully mapped. But knowing Colossal they will just ignore this, create a slightly larger ostrich and call it a Moa.

But I think we are focusing on the wrong things by trying to make extinct animals come back to life, instead of focusing on stopping more species from going extinct. For every species we lose the biodiversity of the planet suffers.

The focus should be exclusively on trying to prevent extinction, not engaging in a fool's errand of trying to bring back what has already been lost.

And the "so called" dire wolfs are just genetically modified grey wolfs. REAL dire wolves were most closely related to modern African Jackals and are not even in the same genus as modern grey wolfs.

Frankly, the whole dire wolf stupidity bears a closer relation to Frankenstein's monster than ethical research.

 

[joluoto]

The focus should be exclusively on trying to prevent extinction, not engaging in a fool's errand of trying to bring back what has already been lost.

And the "so called" dire wolfs are just genetically modified grey wolfs. REAL dire wolves were most closely related to modern African Jackals and are not even in the same genus as modern grey wolfs.

Frankly, the whole dire wolf stupidity bears a closer relation to Frankenstein's monster than ethical research.

They really just tried to make wolves that looked like the Game of Thrones wolves.