Could We Bring The Woolly Mammoth Back From Extinction? | Earth Juice | Earth Unplugged

With a well preserved woolly mammoth, is there a way science could bring them back?

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[ChickenLordKingdom]

Mother Nature already gave them their chance. it would be cool to ride one in a petting zoo but i think it is a bad idea.

[screenpuller]

All the dinosaurs have most certainly NOT gone extinct... birds ARE dinosaurs, it is a proven scientific fact. Big thumbs-up to evolution, another scientifically proven fact.

[dplzgb]

I think we should bring back an egyptian from 6, 000 years ago so he could tell us dummies how to make pyramid.

[seagullqueen]

I don't think we should bring mammoths back to life, because, I don't think there's a point. Yes, I understand they're fantastic creatures, but, know us humans, we'd probably make them go extinct all over again...

[kirillkaminskiy]

wooly mammoths, columbian mammoths and songhua river mammoths are my favorite animals.

[threehornedgaming]

Wooly mammoths are one of my favorite animals.

[GamblingTimeKaraoke]

I feel like if we were to try doing mammoths, we should wait until we've gotten the process more or less perfected with other species. Elephants have a long gestation period, and the elephants themselves they'd be impregnating would likely be endangered or threatened. It wouldn't be worth having surrogate mothers suffering for what's essentially our amusement.
I feel like the extinct species humans have been responsible for should really be the focus though.

[lornFilm]

my thoughts exectly...why bring an extinct animal back? its gonna die again

[CoreyStudios]

I say yes! They are one of God's beautiful creatures. And let's also clone an Iguanodon, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, a Parasaurlophorus, a Diplodicus, a Pteranodon, and a Dodo. Make a little Jurassic Park.

[Joslin]

Absolutely they should bring them back!

[mikaylarogers]

Can we not? Theres a reason why they went extinct in the first place. It's not the best idea. They might look like big cuddly, furry versions of elephant's but in reality, the difference between the time they went extinct and now, who knows what they will eat! We have no idea of knowing, and if we really did bring them back to life it would be terribly lonely and hard to keep them sane. This idea makes me cringe at the thought. Huge, old animals coming back and living with us? No thanks.

[Pile_of_carbon]

I think it all has to do with whether of not that species still has a place in nature. When it comes to animals that we humans have killed off very recently, it would probably be a good idea since there might a gap in the eco system with severe consequences. When it comes to long dead animals like mammoths and the likes, nature has adapted to cope without them and reintroducing the species now could seriously mess up the balance. I'm all for doing it in a (very) controlled environment though.

[ajkelly]

You hold a very silly position in this debate. I don't know if you are invoking supernatural "reasons" or what... But the reason they most likely went extinct was because of rapid climate shift. What do you mean by "they won't be evolved enough"? That doesn't make sense since they were around for millions of years and just a few thousand years ago went extinct. If you mean they wouldn't have the evolutionary changes necessary to live in a warm climate, that is why the park is being created.

[ajkelly]

That's not necessarily the problem. The fetal development will not necessarily progress correctly because of the differences between elephants and mammoths genetically. It's the microbiome in which they grow that is crucial for the correct steps to be taken for a viable animal, otherwise methylation patterns and faulty transcriptional regulation will throw everything out of whack.

[toysmitty]

I think it would be a waste of our time and resources to bring back a species that would not be able to sustain itself. We would need to create at LEAST 50 individuals in order to have a viable population. Instead, I think we should be focusing on trying to save the species we have rather than bring one back. Extinction rates today are 1000 times higher than they were a few hundred years ago so we should be working on more effective management plans to preserve our current biodeversity.

[ZP]

They could be cloned in small numbers and released in areas with no people, and if their numbers would increase too much, then the people would have to control their numbers by hunting them or introducing a predator(however, only a small number of them so that they wouldn´t kill off the species again).By good organization it could work out well.And if the species is released in its old habitat(for example dodo on Mauritius Island), they wouldn´t change ecosystem as they are perfectly adapted to it.

[oreosmooshy]

But what about animals like Passenger Pigeons? They wouldn't be dangerous and would survive, but I imagine that many people would be unhappy with huge, deafening flocks of birds that blacken the sky as they pass over. How would having a species back that once made up 40% of the bird population in the US affect the balance of the ecosystem?
As much as I would love to see resurrected animals like mammoths and dodos, where would draw the line for cloning them? <-- not rhetorical questions.

[ZP]

I think if an animal can be cloned, if there would be a habitat where it could survive and if the animal wouldn´t be too dangerous, it should be cloned.Species that were killed off by humans or domestic animals that humans introduced as an invasive species, should definitely be cloned and reintroduced in their old habitat(animals like dodo, thylacine, Steller´s sea cow, moa, Pinta Island tortoise).As for mammoth, if it would survive in Siberia and if it couldn´t endanger anyone there, it should be cloned

[VianTheGryphon]

I do not agree with bringing Mammoths back to life. It makes no sense to bring back an animal that went extinct naturally, instead of one that was killed due to human intervention, especially when there are cases of ecosystems being ruined by the extinction of one species. And even then, I personally believe the research money would be better off put into conservation projects that will prevent extinctions of species, whether that be protecting habitats, captive breeding or educating the public.

[MsDinoGal]

I've actually read and thought a lot about this, even having some heated conversations with my in-laws. :) I think that, while it might seem cool to see something that looks like a wooly mammoth roaming the tundra, it never really will be 100% mammoth because we'll have to splice in elephant DNA. So in a way, it kind of seems cruel, because even if they're not mammoth, they're still alive, suffering in today's environment. Let's focus on endangered animals to bring their populations back.