The idea of resurrecting an extinct animal has long seemed like an attempt at playing God. While major de-extinction efforts have been made — including biotech startup Colossal Biosciences’ breeding of mutated “woolly mammoth” mice — bringing back an entire species seemed like a thought largely confined to science fiction. But today, Colossal Biosciences has done the impossible: They have brought back the dire wolf, a species that died out more than 12,000 years ago.
The startup is currently the proud creators and owners of three dire wolf pups — twins Romulus and Remus were born in October 2024, while younger pup Khaleesi was born just this January. While the species was common in the Americas around 2 million years ago, most know it today as the inspiration for wolves of the same name in the hit novel and television series Game of Thrones.
“After a 10,000+ year absence, our team is proud to return the dire wolf to its rightful place in the ecosystem,” Colossal Biosciences stated in its official announcement. “Colossal’s innovations in science, technology, and conservation made it possible to accomplish something that’s never been done before: The revival of a species from its longstanding population of zero.”
Similar to the dire wolves of old, Colossal Biosciences’ pups sport thick, white coats, broad frames, and a killer instinct that made them perfect superpredators before their extinction. The startup created their pups by genetically altering cells from a gray wolf (the dire wolf’s closest living relative), editing genes to clone the most viable cell lines, and transferring them into donor eggs to be brought to full term.
“You’d be surprised at how many people seem to think I invented the dire wolf,” Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “Much as I would love to take credit for that, it’s just not so. Dire wolves were real, one of the apex predators of the Ice Age.”
PH Species Going Extinct
The return of the dire wolves marks a pivotal milestone in de-extinction, with the hope of inspiring similar efforts worldwide to either de-extinct a species or prevent that extinction entirely. In the Philippines, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has recorded approximately 2,000 species within the country that are either critically endangered, threatened, or vulnerable.
“We do have a responsibility to eliminate …the possibility of extinction of these species,” said DENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga at the 2024 Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Deduction.
To combat the extinction of several critically endangered species — including the Philippine eagle, tamaraw, and dugong — the DENR recently launched a breeding program and fund-raising campaign titled “Save From Extinction.” Partnering with multiple wildlife conservation groups, the DENR hopes to address the urgency of the issue, especially because the Philippines is one of the world’s “megadiverse” countries, with over 52,000 species of flora and fauna that call the country home.
“The road ahead will not be easy,” said Yulo-Loyzaga at the media launch of the campaign in December 2024. “The survival of these species is in our hands but so is the survival of human species. Let us [work] together to invest in a future where both wildlife and people can thrive.”
