Back to life: Inside the ambitious project to resurrect Australia’s Tasmanian tiger | 101 East

Australia’s thylacine has been extinct for almost 100 years, but a group of the country’s scientists say they will have it roaming the wilds again in a matter of years.

Having received a $15m funding windfall, they are embarking on a project to bring the so-called Tasmanian tiger back to life and are hoping the technology they develop will also help save endangered species from extinction.

But many leading scientists dismiss it as fanciful, claiming the money would be better spent elsewhere.

101 East meets the scientists behind the ambitious project to bring thylacine back to life.


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Thank you for watching. Let us know what you think in the comments below.


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[gamerprincess]

I hope they manage to bring this beautiful creature back. I love that some creatures have been brought back from the brink of extinction and are now thriving. It brings hope. I hope we can continue to save these creatures that we have endangered so.

[gland]

Natural extinction is one thing. But extinction my man is quite another. Bring back the Tasmanian Tiger.

[guaxary]

At the same time, Tasmanian authorities keep logging ancient forests. 400-500 year old trees are being turned into wood chips or paper (yeah, we're letting ancient trees being turned into toilet paper).

[mtcoiner]

Both sides bring valid points. This topic deserves a more heated debate among the people. I wish we could spend more time debating what animals to bring back and how to restore environments and less time fighting over politics and culture.

[hemplord]

I’m so thankful there was atleast a film of the old tasi tiger 😢

[jaredspencer]

I'm encouraged to see that none of the skeptics interviewed here are geneticists. Everyone who works professionally with DNA seems to think it will eventually work.

[i.m.evilhomer]

Fascinating. While I agree with the chief scientist of the Australian museum that Colossal should also be using the funding & technology to help bring back & conserve less charismatic species, but I do understand why they're using the Thylacine as it's a more popular species & thus would bring in the money. Either way, I hope we can bring back & breed recently extinct species, whether they be mighty as a mammoth or as small as the Koʻolau spurwing fly, as well as help struggling species still with us, such as the Sumatran rhino, Hawaiian crow, Pinta Island tortoise, Black-footed ferret, & the Tasmanian devil, just to name a few.

[narrowpath]

Can they bring the forest and way of life back also ?

[yukeenakamura]

There were some very good points that aren’t discussed often.
1. Releasing a Thylacine into the wild won’t happen anytime soon. While they’re working on resurrecting one, the Tasmanian forests are continuing to be cut down and by the time they’ve made a Thylacine there may not even be a suitable environment to release it to.
2. There are many more extinct species that are more feasible to try to bring back, the issue simply being that they aren’t well-known to the public and thus are less likely to draw in funding.

I love the Thylacine just as much as the next advocate, if not more. But there seems to be a theme here where we aren’t prioritizing what we STILL have and we’re just wanting what we don’t have. Like they said, not only are habitats dwindling, but also roads serve as significant threats, and currently endangered species are very much not in need of a new predator.
While I’m excited about the possibility of seeing a Thylacine(?) one day, I’d have to agree with the biologists that our priorities and funding are probably not in the right place in the current stage

[grafito]

It will look, run, and be as big as a Thylacine, but the first noise it will make is squeeak! 😂

[rene]

I agree that all extinct animals should be resurrected if it is possible. We owe that to nature. Both Tasmanian tiger and Mammoth, and other animals that are no longer here. I am a big fan of that. 👍

[ccag]

I say why not . This kinda advancement can bring on so much more awesome things .

[bradwilliams]

Back in 2001 my wife and I took the kids on a trip to Tasmania. While on the road between Strahan and Queenstown on the west coast, both my wife and I clearly saw a large dog like animal come out of the bush, cross the road and, with one leap, climb up the embankment (at least 2 - 2.5 metres high) on the other side. Unfortunately, it was too far away & too quick to get a detailed look but, the animal in question was too big to be a feral cat or dog. Until my dying day, I'm convinced that what we saw was a Thylacine. True story.

[dbx]

It would be funny, if after spending millions of dollars to successfully bring back the Tasmanian Tiger, a remote population of existing Thylacine were discovered alive and well.

[Allannah_Of_Rome]

As a very young teen I visited Tassie with my school and we came across a lil out of the way museum off the beaten track and inside was a stuffed Tassie tiger, we all got to touch and talk about it not realizing how important it was, and apparently there was only 2 in existance and both were thought to be lost. I believe this to be the tiger scientists had been searching for as it still had soft tissue and loads of usable of DNA attached. We had no idea at the time how important that stuffed tiger would become to science and the world!!

[aljayverdan]

So much critic's, let's bring back that beautiful creature!

[planetlondon]

Excellent documentary on the cutting -edge science, worth watching.

[keeperofthefaith]

Bring back the tiger, mates, and this time look after them. Give the people some inspiration. Life begets life.

[maxwellbarrett]

the money to fund this project versus say a restoration initiative comes from different sources. and as was said in this video, learning how to dextinct something whether we follow through or not will provide us with a whole range of incredible tools we can use in conservation today