Should Scientists Recreate Extinct Species?

This week's Animal Oddity is about bringing extinct creatures back to life. The odd-looking quagga, a member of the wild horse family, has been extinct since 1880s. However, in the 1980s scientists were able to isolate quagga DNA from an unlikely source: a stuffed museum specimen.

Even though quaggas are only partially striped, study of their DNA has led some scientists to conclude that the quagga is actually a subspecies of plains zebra. That meant it was possible to selectively breed living plains zebras showing quagga characteristics (i.e., minimal striping) and "recreate" the extinct animal. Through the efforts of The Quagga Project, the first zebra foal with quagga-like striping was born in 2005.

Today, several generations of these new quaggas have been bred. While the scientific community is still debating whether these animals can truly be considered real quaggas, the effort has shown that it could be possible to bring certain species back from extinction.

What do you think? In light of the current global mass extinction crisis, should we try to bring back extinct species such as the quagga or the woolly mammoth that have disappeared?

Here's a great segment from ABC on the efforts to recreate the quagga.

Get the latest odd animal news, stories, videos and behaviors on my Animal Planet blog Animal Oddities.