Scientists Are Planning To Revive The Dodo After 400 Years — By Using Chickens Surrogates

Until the 17th century, dodo birds were the kings of an island carved by a volcano in Mauritius. With no predators on the island, dodos never learned to develop their flight muscles. They didn’t need to fly or flee from anyone. But then, about 400 years ago, they suddenly disappeared, per TED-Ed. The cause, people thought, was the arrival of Dutch sailors who started killing and roasting these birds to eat. The sailors also introduced invasive animals like rats, macaques, and pigs that would eat up the eggs and chicks of dodos. The birds faded away from the planet, surviving only in paintings and artworks. On September 17, a Texas-based company announced that they are bringing the birds back, according to a report by The Guardian.

Colossal Biosciences, a biotechnology company, has been working on “de-extinction” of animals for over a decade. From dire wolves to Tasmanian tigers and woolly mammoths, the company has resurrected so many species that were declared extinct in the past. Now is the time to bring them back. Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s scientific chief, who walks around wearing a tattoo of a dodo on her arm, revealed that the secret behind this resurrection process is “gene-editing.” After the dodos were devoured by the Dutch sailors and human encroachment degraded the forest ecosystems, this gene modification is exactly what they need to bring back these plump-bellied birds on the planet.

Colossal’s mission is not just to resurrect these flightless birds, but also to ensure that the birds reach their former home in Mauritius Island, located near the Indian Ocean. Currently, the firm is working with wildlife groups to hunt for safe, rat-free sites in Mauritius where species could once again roam and thrive. The secret scientists are employing to resuscitate dodos is “primordial germ cells (PGCs),” reproductive precursors to sperm and eggs, churned from cultured pigeons. The company has already succeeded in growing these germ cells, which, they say, is a “pivotal step” in bringing back the dodo for the first time. Dodo, in fact, was a type of pigeon. “This is the really important step for the dodo project, but also for bird conservation, more broadly,” Shapiro told CNN. 

Apart from these primordial germ cells, the team is also using gene-edited chickens as surrogates to birth dodo chicks. These surrogate chickens will be injected with primordial germ cells from Nicobar pigeons, the closest living relatives of dodos, which, over time, will allow dodos to develop the desired body shape and size. “Rough ballpark, we think it’s still five to seven years out, but it’s not 20 years out,” Ben Lamm, Colossal’s chief executive, said. He added that the goal is to make enough dodos with enough genetic diversity engineered into them. “We are not looking to make two dodos, we’re looking to make thousands,” Lamm exclaimed.

The credit for turning the clock back in time goes to “CRISPR gene editing technology,” the company is using to return dodos to their hometown. The company has raised $120 million till now and is acquiring additional funding for its work for a total of $555 million since launching in September 2021. “That whole process will take at least five to seven years,” Lamm told CNN. The hope is that once these fat-looking dodos are back in the town, rules will be made to restrict the sailors from killing them.

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