Passenger
pigeon de-extinction was publicly announced at TEDxDeExtinction, outlining an early vision of the long term project to restore the role of passenger pigeons to eastern North American forests.
In 2017, we welcome aboard a new project partner to sequence and research more genomes for Passenger
Pigeon de-extinction, the Center for Genome Architecture at Rice University's Baylor College of Medicine.
Any researcher or individual in the world can now begin comparing the genomes of these two species and contribute insights to Passenger
Pigeon de-extinction.
From an evolutionary standpoint, passenger
pigeon de-extinction creates a new lineage of life: a lineage originating from the band - tailed pigeon but carrying the genes of the extinct passenger pigeon, very similar to hybridization.
This method could prove a viable route of studying the effects of passenger pigeon mutations on bird traits — a means to discovering how to fine - tune the passenger
pigeon de-extinction process.
To begin passenger
pigeon de-extinction we need the successful establishment of both a male and female primordial germ cell cell line.
While the Heath Hen and Passenger
Pigeon de-extinction projects have begun to receive coverage in the press (see UnDark magazine «s piece on resurrecting the heath hen and National Geographic on reviving the passenger pigeon), the versatile uses of genomic technologies for avian conservation hasn't yet reached many professional and citizen scientists working to save birds and their habitats.
When Revive & Restore started working on Passenger
Pigeon de-extinction four years ago, we hypothesized that the passenger pigeon could be a model species to develop the science of de-extinction.
December 2014 he began a pilot study breeding band - tailed pigeons, which has now given us the information we need to design the bird facility needs of the next phases of passenger
pigeon de-extinction.
Being able to breed band - tailed pigeons year round, especially without negatively effecting their behavior and quality of living, is a huge milestone for moving forward with passenger
pigeon de-extinction.
Not exact matches
Novak — who is unconvinced that any natural processes played a part in the bird's demise — predicts that, if the
de-extinction effort is successful, «the passenger
pigeon of the future will adapt to our forests as it adapted to the changing forests of the past.»
But the fact that passenger
pigeons persisted at relatively small population sizes gives fresh hope to efforts to bring them back — so - called
de-extinction.
De-extinction of the passenger
pigeon will not be an easy job, either from a social or a genetic perspective, Hung notes.
«
De-extinction probability increases with every improvement in ancient DNA analysis,» said Stewart Brand, co-founder of the nonprofit conservation group Revive and Restore, which aims to resurrect vanished species including the passenger
pigeon and the woolly mammoth, whose genomes have already been mostly pieced together.
The group is creating a movement around
de-extinction, and is taking the lead on efforts to bring back the passenger
pigeon while helping out on other ongoing efforts to restore other extinct species including European aurochs, Pyrenean ibexes, American chestnut trees, Tasmanian tigers, California condors, even wooly mammoths.
The experience of my science fair project was so rewarding I didn't give up the notion that
de-extinction would be possible someday, and today I lead a project to use modern genomic sciences to revive the extinct passenger
pigeon.
The «
De-extinction» movement and its plan to bring back the passenger
pigeon, is briefly explored.
Contrary to the poetic nature of «righting past wrongs» that some attribute to the
de-extinction of passenger
pigeons, I view the
de-extinction of the passenger
pigeon as a project seeded in our present and future; it is a pivotal exercise in thought stressing the recognition that we are the drivers of change on this planet and that we have the cognitive ability to take responsibility for the direction of that change.
What we didn't realize is that our work could be so profoundly inspiring to a young generation of scientists — one eleven - year - old passenger
pigeon enthusiast and de-extinctionist to be exact, who was so excited by the idea of
de-extinction that he published a novel in 2015 on the subject.
Since the 2013 announcement of our flagship passenger
pigeon project,
de-extinction has received a great deal of media attention.
A turning point that the
de-extinction of the passenger
pigeon can sway towards the value of life, just as the extinction of the passenger
pigeon did so powerfully a century ago.
The
de-extinction of the passenger
pigeon is about the
pigeon's place in the forests of tomorrow.
It is important to the
de-extinction effort because it shows (as our data do) that passenger
pigeon populations fluctuated in size through time, as resource availability changed.
Our team would like to be able to research passenger
pigeon genes for
de-extinction while primordial germ cell cultures are developed, and an Australian team has developed an effective way of bypassing cell cultures for engineering birds by going directly to the primordial germ cells in the embryo.
Anyone that has watched my TEDx DeExtinction talk on the Passenger
Pigeon knows that the Dodo bird is the bird that started my adolescent passion for
de-extinction.
Her lab published the first DNA sequences of the Passenger
Pigeon in 2002, and she has since become one of the premiere scientists contemplating the emerging field of
de-extinction.
Although the bird above doesn't look exactly like a passenger
pigeon, it is
de-extinction success.
Now that the unique ecological role of the passenger
pigeon compels us to pursue
de-extinction, we need to figure out how best to reintroduce a new generation of
pigeons and restore that ecology.
To do
de-extinction successfully we need the power to engineer large sections of DNA sequentially in a period of weeks / months rather than years, so primordial germ cells cell cultures will be the mainstay of our effort, but while we wait we could establish a stock of birds that have a few passenger
pigeon mutations as a foundation.
Extinction Is Not Forever: Reviving the Passenger
Pigeon with The Long Now Foundation's Ben Novak «Novak's work is part of a broader campaign of «
de-extinction» being funded by The Long Now Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to fostering, in its own words, «long - term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.»
Avian Genetic Rescue: Although the
de-extinction of the Passenger
Pigeon and the Heath Hen will likely take a decade, avian
de-extinction research is already generating foundational science that could transform bird conservation.
Project collaborators Holland Shaw and John Bender have volunteered to help expand our small flock of Band - tailed
Pigeons to the numbers needed for a successful
de-extinction program.
While the genome editing capabilities without cultured primordial germ - cells is limited and a slower process, the optimization of methods for handling embryos and caring for engineered birds will be instrumental to an efficient
de-extinction program as well as genetic rescue of other birds with similar parenting behaviors to
pigeons.
The Great Passenger
Pigeon Comeback program served as a model for discussing the process, considerations, and obstacles necessary to overcome for the
de-extinction of the Great Auk, at a meeting hosted by Lord Viscount Matthew Ridley at the Centre for Life, New Castle Upon Tyne, England.
As these new ideas about the passenger
pigeon are discussed among conservation, management, and ornithology researchers there is growing agreement that the passenger
pigeon is an excellent candidate for
de-extinction.
As they investigated what species could be studied for such a «
de-extinction» project, the passenger
pigeon came into the picture again and again from interviews with scientists.
11:43 a.m. Addendum Just one of the many secondary issues in this arena is «
de-extinction» — the prospect of bringing vanished species — say, the passenger
pigeon — back to life now that we know better.
With the recent 100th anniversary of the death of the last passenger
pigeon,
de-extinction has been on everyone's mind...
De-extinction of the species starts with studying the genome and discovering what genes influence the passenger
pigeon's unique traits.
Although the bird above doesn't look exactly like a passenger
pigeon, it is
de-extinction success.
Bioabundance is the best argument for two of the
de-extinction projects I'm involved with — passenger
pigeons and woolly mammoths.