Wooly mammoths ‘being brought back from extinction’ as scientists plan to use genes to create ‘Arctic elephant’

He first announced the work on creating the new animal in a public talk at the National Geographic Society in 2013.

The company has received $15million in initial funding to carry out experiments in labs in Boston and Dallas.

“This is a major milestone for us,” Church said at the time.

“It’s going to make all the difference in the world.”

ETHICAL QUESTIONS

Some researchers have questioned whether it is ethical to bring the genes back to life and use it in this way, however.

"Projects involving genetic manipulation often raise concerns about 'playing God' or meddling with nature," Julian Koplin, Research Fellow in Biomedical Ethics at the University of Melbourne, Australia, told Newsweek.

"In this case, though, the aim is to re-introduce mammoths into ecosystems in which they used to exist—which to my mind resembles existing rewilding projects more closely than Frankensteinian meddling with nature."

“There’s tons of trouble everyone is going to encounter along the way,” added Beth Shapiro, the author of How to Clone a Mammoth, to the New York Times.

"I'm personally excited by the project," Koplin continued, however.

"This is partly because—like everyone—I love woolly mammoths, and partly because of what de-extinction technologies could do for our ability to repair some of the damage humans have inflicted on biodiversity.

"Since the consequences of climate change are potentially catastrophic, I think it's worth taking seriously any strategies that could help, including those that have a low chance of success or might seem far-fetched.

";If the stakes are high enough, even a long shot is worth taking."

'CATASTROPHIC ISSUES'

Other questions have also been raised about the uncertainly of how the new mammoth-elephant hybrid would behave.

"There is reason to be sceptical that introducing some mammoth genes into Asian elephants will result in them adopting the behaviour of mammoths from thousands of years ago," Christopher Gyngell, also a Research Fellow in Biomedical Ethics at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute told Newsweek.

"Elephants, as well as humans, learn behaviours from their parents and elders ... It's not clear that elephant-mammal hybrids will act like mammoths with no established elders living in the ecosystem."

"It's a great aim," Gyngell said.

"Although this project uses novel technologies, it pursues similar goals to other environmental projects ... furthermore, the melting of the Siberian permafrost is a serious global problem.

"Ambitious projects like this may be justified when trying to solve potentially catastrophic issues."