Scientists are Working to Bring Back The Tasmanian Tiger That’s Extinct Since 1936

The ‘Tasmanian Tiger’ that became extinct years back may once again walk on planet earth. 

American and Australian Scientists have launched a project to bring the ‘Tasmanian Tiger, popularly known as Thylacine, which once roamed the Australian bush, back to life. It had gone extinct in the 1930s. 

The multimillion-dollar project is a collaboration between Colossal Biosciences and Harvard Medical School geneticist George Church. 

The ambitious $15 million project aims at bringing the “woolly mammoth back to life in an altered form.”

Though there is no time estimation as to when the creatures would come alive, entrepreneur Ben Lamm, the founder of Colossal Biosciences, believes the first Tasmanian Tigers will be seen in about 10 years. 

Living cells from its closest relative, the Dunnart will be taken and it will be edited to become more like the Tasmanian Tiger cell. 

With advanced reproductive techniques involving Dunnarts as surrogates, Tasmanian Tigers would become a living animal. 

Introducing the Thylacine into its natural habitat would require careful study of the animal and its interaction with the ecosystem according to Andrew Pask, 

professor at the University of Melbourne and head of its Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research Lab, who is leading the initiative.

The marsupial once inhabited Australia albeit 3000 years it was restricted only to Tasmania. 

The last known thylacine named Benjamin died in captivity in 1936 due to exposure at Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania. Though it was spotted years later, it became officially extinct in the 1980s. 

“Our ultimate goal with this technology is to restore these species to the wild, where they played absolutely essential roles in the ecosystem. So our ultimate hope is that you would be seeing them in the Tasmanian bushland again one day,” Pask said.