The saddest part is animals like the Tasmanian Tiger were INTENTIONALLY brought to extinction by the Australian government putting a price on its head. They wanted it to go extinct, and now that humans have finally realized their mistake, it’s too late.
Imagine being last of your species, locked in a small enclosure, calling for your kind and getting no response and the last thing you see is a human. Poor Tasmanian Tiger
I've lived in Tasmania my entire life. For context in case people need it, this is an incredibly rugged and wild place. 40% of the entire island is designated as national parks which are essentially kept entirely wild and natural. Despite this, we have seen huge amounts of species become endangered or extinct due to human impact... if that can happen here, where I can find wild rainforests less than an hour from my house in the second largest city in the state, it can definitely happen elsewhere. This science is incredibly important for the future of our wilderness.
3:42 I am no scientist, but I think what people underestimate about de-extinction and breeding backwards is that they think is , “yeah like mix two cells or dna something and then u get a perfect animal out of it”, evolution is a process of trial and error,that’s why we evolve , it took years to reach here where we are, were are bodies are so perfect, so whenever people will try to breed backwards , the animals will always come out with deformed organs or something, it’s a very tedious process, and they are just going back on it, it will take years to make a perfectly healthy animal out of it, as every prototype would have some problem, until then they will be just making new lives and torturing them because they won’t be able to survive, but it would be great if they could do it , as I don’t know much of it
The biggest thing we ignore is the importance of parenting. Example: in Kenya, poachers whipped out all the adult bull elephants in a troop. For three years, the teenaged males recklessly destroyed their own food supply, attacked humans, even raped rhinos. The problem was only solved when bulks from other troops, who had been raised by male adult bulks, were introduced. All animals need parents of their own species, raised in their own biome, passing down the behavior accumulated over millions of years, in order to be functional.
De-extinction is fascinating, especially how aspects of it could help fight diseases and build resilience in existing species, but I feel like the bigger story is about changing our systems and culture so we can actually coexist with apex predators again. The Tasmanian tiger, like so many others, was wiped out through persecution, if we haven’t fixed that, why bring it back just to repeat history? Thats if the species can even be accurately replicated.
13:00 I feel if it's an animal that we personally as humans cause the extinction of then it's more than okay to bring that animal back. Especially if the absence of that animal is affecting the ecosystem of the area it was in like with the Tasmanian tiger. If it's an animal species that died off naturally not due to human interference than I believe we should just let it be. The only ones we should be bringing back are species that were killed off directly due to humans.
G’day, I’m an Aussie, and the Tassie Tiger (Thylacine) is the saddest thing, hunted to extinction and as the country that has the highest rate of mammal extinction in the world and is a global leader in species declines, it breaks my heart!!!
0:11 poor thing didn’t just die it died due to negligence…. A worker forgot to put the Thylacine to bed at night and it froze to death… isn’t that messed up. The last of its species in the entire world and they forgot to put them to bed to keep them warm!!!!
It's understandable why these conversations are happening.... but it's a real concern why the conversations on how NOT to kill off the world's existing wildlife isn't louder?
This is the kind of storytelling that makes science feel sacred again not just about reviving the past, but redefining our duty to the present. You turned de-extinction from sci-fi fantasy into a mirror for humanity’s choices. Absolutely breathtaking work.
Ok if you could bring back one extinct animal, what's your choice? You could go very realistic (thylacine).... or a totally unrealistic chaos pick... mine is the Macrauchenia. It's like a llama with an elephant trunk. I love them. (Also, don't forget to subscribe if you think there should be more optimistic stories about science and tech.)
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