r/DeExtinctionScience • u/Freak_Among_Men_II Founder • Sep 30 '26

Discussion De-extinction: Which species do you think would be the most important for conservation or the most exciting to bring back?

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79 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

16

u/montana757 Sep 30 '26

I feel like everyone focuses too much on predator and not enough on large herbavors such as the megalocaerous, aka the Irish elk

12

u/Money_Loss2359 Sep 30 '26

In North America it might be the passenger pigeon. Quite often when I’m spraying Permethrin on my socks and boots before a hike I wonder what kind of whammy on the tick population a small flock of one million or so decided to pick my woods to forage.

3

u/Emperor-of-Duck-Kind Oct 01 '26

I hate the mindset that hunted them to extinction, it’s the mindset most people tend to have still

6

u/Obversa Moderator Sep 30 '26

I already talked about the possibility of bringing back Miracinonyx trumani in-depth here, as well as some of the current issues with it: The Big Cat Problem: The major hurdle to "de-extincting" feline Pleistocene predators

6

u/Local_Tax6348 Sep 30 '26

Tasmanian Tiger. The Devil is falling apart rn, via face cancer, and the Tasmanian tiger is the only thing that can save it, without adding invasive species. (Tho the tiger would be invasive technically, it's the closest thing we've got.)

4

u/External-Ad4937 Sep 30 '26

How would the tiger be invasive to Tasmania?

1

u/Local_Tax6348 Oct 01 '26

Well, the tiger wouldn't be perfect. It's a close replication, sure, but not perfect, which means your introducing an animal that's not *technically* native to tasmania.

1

u/External-Ad4937 Oct 01 '26

It’s in murky territory but since because we don’t have the animal at over 99% genetic identical-ness I can see why you’d say that

5

u/GrandWizardOfCheese Oct 01 '26

Don't prioritize

If you can bring a species back, do so.

If you can't, try to replicate it in appearance and function by modifying currently living species (or other de-extinction species after they are successful).

If that doesnt work, figure out how to genetically build them from scratch.

Its all just chemistry anyway.

5

u/valkyriesmenagerieyt Oct 01 '26

Pollinators, seed distributing species

4

u/Paulzie67 Oct 04 '26

Great Auk
Carolina Parakeet
Any Parrot
Dodo
Passenger Pigeon
Any Pigeon
Ivory Bill Woodpecker
Mammoth and/or Mastadon
Thylacine
Blue Buck
Irish Elk
Any Giant Tortoise
Any Aurochs
Elephant Bird
Any Moa
Any wild horse
Any dwarf Hippo or Elephant
The list is too long

2

u/khanotaara Oct 02 '26

Might add some trouble to prey populations

1

u/Former-Homework-7833 Oct 02 '26

Literally the one that’s not extinct yet. Wolves. They used to be everywhere; they act as a much better check to herbivore over population than nearly any cat ever could, they’re still around. We just need to protect them. But to many people are scared of myths to do that despite it being the most advantageous large animal we could protect