Photo Credit: Francesco Ungaro.
During the Pleistocene Age and the early centuries of the Holocene, thousands of megaherbivores; mammoths, bison, elk, woolly rhinos – and many other animals weighing over 1000 kg – roamed a planet Earth that was in the grip of the last Ice Age. The presence of these large grazers played an ecologically crucial role in regulating the health of both their habitats and the planet. Their feeding habits kept the population of various plants in check, maintained a balance in vegetation diversity, cleared snow during their foraging activities (which allowed for new plants to grow), and – perhaps most importantly – acted against global warming. Their feeding habits allowed for the growth of vast spans of grassland that effectively reflected sunlight into the atmosphere. By clearing away snow, they also exposed underlying soil to the arctic air, keeping it and the permafrost – a layer of frozen dirt and rock containing plant matter from previous eras – frozen.
However, the end of the last Ice Age over 50,000 years ago and the subsequent extinction of many megaherbivores diminished this ecosystem function. While certain herbivores like caribou and musk oxen still roam the Arctic, the fragmentation of their habitats and populations may have limited their albedo-inducing capabilities to smaller pockets.
Permafrost may hold decaying plant matter accumulated over billions of years of the planet’s cycles, the equivalent of up to 1600 tonnes of greenhouse gasses, more than twice the current level in the atmosphere. Should the permafrost melt, these gasses would escape into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming many times. With climate change rapidly heating the Arctic biome, we are racing towards this catastrophic scenario unless we take drastic action to stop it.
One of the proposed solutions to the melting of the poles is to revive the ecosystem that stretched over the Arctic Circleduring the Ice Age, including the return of megaherbivores like the woolly mammoth. Among the proposals for this project include plans for the establishment of a Pleistocene Park-based project instituted in Russia – to protect large tracts of land for grazing projects; several wild arctic herbivores would be released into these parks and – through their foraging activities – ensure that the permafrost stays frozen and the albedo effect increases, minimizing the warming in these areas.
It is hoped that cloning technology could be sufficiently leveraged to bring about the return of the mammoth to these parks as well; genetic material taken from frozen mammoths would be modified with elephant DNA to create a mammoth-elephant hybrid, or’ mammoplasty,’ that could survive in the tundra.
By creating and breeding a herd of mammophants, it is hoped that future generations might be genetically closer to mammoths, reviving an animal that played a crucial role in shaping its habitat. Mammoths were one of the primary caretakers of the grassland, clearing trees and snow and allowing vast stretches of steppe to form, demonstrating the interconnection between biodiversity and the physical systems that regulate our climate.
The idea of ‘de-extinction’ as a conservation tool captured people’s interest, possibly after the concept was popularized with the publication of Jurassic Park in the 90s. The idea that many recently extinct species might once again enact their historical roles in an ecosystem and reverse several problems brought on by the Anthropocene captures zoological interest, like the mammoth’s role as an ecosystem engineer – one that modern elephants and other extant megaherbivores still perform – many other extinct species could hold vital positions in their ecosystems.
Returning the Tasmanian Wolf to the Australian Outback might allow this extinct apex predator to control the populations of feral and invasive species, thus reducing their negative impacts on native species; the Passenger Pigeon was formerly an essential disperser of several forest trees in the USA, Japan’s two extinct wolf species kept wild herbivores in check, the Aurochs across Europe and the Dodo and giant Tortoises in island biomes may have played a similar role to the mammoth; the examples are just the tip of the iceberg when describing some of the impacts that extinct species had on their habitats. The revenue from wildlife tourism spurred by de-extinction could also go a long way towards funding conservation efforts worldwide.
While de-extinction is challenged regarding costs, success, timescales, ethics, animal rights, etc., the principle still holds merit: returning certain species to their former ranges has allowed those habitats to partly return to their previous states. The reintroduction of the Wisent across Europe, the Lynx in Spain, the Wolves of Yellowstone and tortoises on several islands, among others, have delivered a positive impact on ecosystems, suggesting that species substitution or the conservation and reintroduction of close relatives might provide a level of success in this aspect as well as contribution to the preservation of species.
The gene-editing techniques used to create ‘mammophants’ also present the potential for reducing certain endangered animals’ vulnerability to the anthropogenic ravages on their environments; protecting amphibians from the fatal chytrid fungus is a prime example of how biosciences could aid conservation.
Gene banks have been collecting and preserving DNA from many flora and fauna since the 1960s and 70s. They are attempting to use them to save millions of species from the threat of extinction.
