from the brink of extinction

Since Jurassic Park ignited the silver screen, conservationists and a few scientists have wondered about using our understanding of genetics and advanced technology to try and bring extinct creatures back from death’s embrace or save a species teetering on the brink from dying out completely. Today we know that due to degradation of DNA in ancient remains, we can only dream about resurrecting recently extinct living things. Maybe saber tooth cats or mammoths. Ideally, something like a Tasmanian tiger which was around all the way up to the 1930s and for which we have many preserved tissue samples rich with DNA.

But here’s a big question. Should we even try? Creatures go extinct for a reason and almost all species that ever existed on this planet have now vanished because they couldn’t adapt to new climates and cope with competition and predation. (Yes, we count as predation.) If we expend a whole lot of money, resources and technology on resurrecting Ice Age creatures or a couple of unique predators, they would be zoo oddities at best. If we let them loose into the wild, they will quickly die off again because they’re no longer suited for a post-Ice Age world or because what was once their habitat is now either a city or a farm.

Same question goes for endangered creatures. It’s true that we’re destroying habitats, helping to drive some species into extinction. Still, if we artificially boost their populations wouldn’t we be just prolonging the inevitable ? Species come, species go. It’s been that way since life began and the first amoebas started competing for light and nutrients. When we backed off the herds of buffalo, their population bounced back beautifully and now, they’re among the best success stories in conservation. But if we had to go in with cloning, beakers and probes to save a dying species that couldn’t naturally survive when we give them a little room one has to question if it makes sense to save a creature that can’t survive in our world anymore.

Maybe we should add a new criteria to conservations efforts. If we have to break out the genetic sequencers and lab equipment to save a species, it might be time to let evolution take its toll on the endangered population.