Scientists plan to bring Dodo back to life 400 years after it went extinct

SCIENTISTS are bringing the dodo back to life 400 years after it went extinct.

They will use gene-editing techniques to scan the dodo genome for traits that they can bestow on a pigeon – their closest relative.

1

The flightless dodo, native to Mauritius, was wiped off the face of the earth in the 17th century.

Participating gene-editing company Colossal Biosciences is already planning to bring back the woolly mammoth and the thylacine, a wolf-like predator last seen in Tasmania in the 1930s.

But the resuscitation of a bird will be the first to use an external egg – meaning scientists can modify pigeon eggs without having to interfere with a living animal’s reproductive system.

US entrepreneur Ben Lamm, Colossal’s co-founder and CEO, said they could even house the bird in its former land.

He said: “We are very transparent about that [the place] Releasing the dodo back into the wild would be Mauritius.”

But bringing the bird back has ruffled feathers within the scientific community – with some saying the money would be best spent saving living creatures.