{"id":25691,"date":"2019-02-27T16:16:27","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T22:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/?p=25691"},"modified":"2025-08-20T00:26:40","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T05:26:40","slug":"can-de-extinction-bring-the-passenger-pigeon-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/can-de-extinction-bring-the-passenger-pigeon-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Can “De-Extinction” Bring The Passenger Pigeon Back?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo \u201cpassenger pigeon 02 – Cleveland Museum of Natural History<\/a>\u201d by Tim Evanson<\/a>, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In nature, things happen in unexpected ways. As change moves forward, one of the unfortunate results is that all manner of biological beings inevitably face extraordinary circumstances against that which have served them well for so long. So long, in fact, that we don\u2019t even have proper history of much of it. As historical data began to accumulate, thanks to the extraordinary interests and feats of a few scientists, we have come to vitally recognize what was \u2014 and still is \u2014 important to many species in terms of habitat, food, predator safety, and climate. Many once vibrant creatures became extinct due to overwhelming changes that did not allow for the sustaining of that species\u2019 kind. With science, however, extinction could now become a reversible event.<\/p>\n

In recent years, a science referred to as de-extinction has become more than a flight of fancy in the minds of scientists, especially biologists. To date, science have produced remarkable tools \u2014 all still in their infancy, and all looked upon in various degrees of ethics. \u201cJurassic Park,\u201d the popular novel and movie series, entertained the concept of reintroducing age-old dinosaurs using DNA extracted from fossils of these ancient creatures and merging them with existing animals likely extended from the lineage of the dinosaurs. However, in actual science, it\u2019s been realized that DNA ages to the point it becomes unusable. That keeps challenging storylines like \u201cJurassic Park\u201d from becoming reality.<\/p>\n

The Great Passenger Pigeon’s Comeback?<\/h3>\n

In 1914, the last passenger pigeon, named Martha, died in the Cincinnati Zoo. Martha, made it to 29 years of age before her unfortunate death. She had never laid a fertile egg and, therefore, the reality of the passenger pigeon died with her. But now, some 105 years later, the technology of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats\u2026say that fast!) has single-handedly promised a new era of gene-editing that has a wide array of applications and potential solutions \u2014 including human disease management \u2014 that could play a large role in what is being referred to as \u201cresurrection biology\u201d or, more to the point \u2014 \u201cspecies revivalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

A project known as The Great Passenger Pigeon Comeback is in the oversight of Ben Novak, a scientist with an interest in ancient DNA. At the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, Novak learned the process of DNA extraction as well as properly sequencing Mastodon fossils. With his current work at the Long Now Foundation, where he has been employed since 2012, he has helped to further establish the core intent of Revive and Restore the extinct passenger pigeon.<\/p>\n

The five stages of the de-extinction program for the passenger pigeon include:<\/p>\n