Colossal Biosciences, the breakthrough genetic engineering and de-extinction company, is pleased to announce the formation of the Tasmania Thylacine Advisory Committee. Led by Tasmanian Mayor Michele Dracoulis, this committee will provide a crucial public body for the discussion, development and dissemination of plans related to the rewilding of the thylacine. Commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger, the slim, striped keystone species was native to Australia, including Tasmania and New Guinea. Last year, Colossal announced plans to de-extinct and return the Thylacine to its native habitat in collaboration with local government, Aboriginal representatives, industry leaders, private landowners, university representation and the public at large.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here.
“We are excited to work with this incredible local committee on the next steps of the Thylacine project,” shared Colossal CEO Ben Lamm. “Mayor Dracoulis, business and educational leader James Groom, Aboriginal activist Peter Rowe and all the members are helping to ensure we have a complete picture of how reintroduction can support the efforts of the Tasmanian community. From biodiversity improvements to economic opportunities, we want this to help invigorate a community I’ve come to know and love.”
Select Tasmania Thylacine Advisory Committee members include:
- Mayor Michelle Dracoulis of the Derwent Valley Council
- Mayor Loueen Triffitt, Tasmanian Aboriginal (Pakana) Ambassador & Cultural Educator and the Mayor of the Central Highlands Council
- James Groom, principal of Groom Kennedy Lawyers and Advisors and Deputy Chancellor of the University of Tasmania
- Mia Lindgrin, Associate Dean of Research Performance for Community Consultation and Impact, University of Tasmania
- Sam Bradley, CEO of the Derwent Experience
- Todd Babiak, CEO of Brand Tasmania
- Alex Heroyas, Chief Executive Officer of Destination Southern Tasmania
- Peter Rowe, Tasmanian Aboriginal Advocate and proud Trawlwoolway man
- Greg Irons, Director of Bonorong Sanctuary
- Michael Smith, President of the Derwent Valley and Central Highlands Tourism Association
- Kennedy Kurwaisimba, Coordinator Forest Products – Planning at Sustainable Timber Tasmania
- Murray Antill, University of Tasmania School of Creative Arts & Media
“I’m invested in ensuring the best future for Tasmania, which is why I wanted to helm the Tasmania Thylacine Advisory Committee,” said Mayor Michelle Dracoulis, chairwoman of the Colossal Tasmania Thylacine Advisory Committee. “Culturally, on our island, the thylacine is more than an extinct animal. It is part of our identity, and lives strongly in our folklore and imagination. Bringing back the thylacine is an important step in ensuring biodiversity and safeguarding Tasmania for future generations. Its restoration will contribute to much-needed healing in our land which has a troubled past but is home to a people that have hopes for a brighter future.
“I look forward to talking to our Aboriginal groups to inform the members of this exciting project. The thylacine has been a cultural icon of Aboriginal groups throughout Australia for thousands of years and is featured in our ancient rock-art plus it is my own family totem,” shared Peter Rowe, Aboriginal Advocate, Derwent Valley Council Indigenous Advisor and Lawyer. “The Thylacine was an apex predator wiped out by man; from its loss the environment has suffered. Our people work to maintain nature’s balance as part of our duty to care for the Earth.”
“I have spent my career actively working to help Tasmania prosper – socially, commercially and culturally. Joining the Tasmania Thylacine Advisory Committee is an opportunity for me to continue to support our home state and help shape this globally significant and vitally important work,” said James Groom, Senior Tasmanian lawyer and Director.
The TTA will meet quarterly to discuss updates to the project and plans to share information regularly with the broader community. For more information on the TTA, please visit Colossal’s website where information will be routinely updated with advances in scientific research, project progress and a question and comment input form for community discussion.
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ABOUT COLOSSAL
Colossal was founded by emerging technology and software entrepreneur Ben Lamm and world-renowned geneticist and serial biotech entrepreneur George Church, Ph.D., and is the first to apply CRISPR technology for the purposes of species de-extinction. Colossal creates innovative technologies for species restoration, critically endangered species protection and the repopulation of critical ecosystems that support the continuation of life on Earth. Colossal is accepting humanity’s duty to restore Earth to a healthier state, while also solving for the future economies and biological necessities of the human condition through cutting-edge science and technologies. To follow along, please visit: www.colossal.com
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Not this bullshit again.
It sounds great, doesn’t it? We hunted this animal to extinction and now we’re going to bring it back and return it to the wild, aren’t we great, hooray for us.
Except it won’t work. It can’t.
First they have to get enough DNA to compile the complete genome; there aren’t enough specimens in good enough condition for that, so gaps will have to be filled in by using DNA from related species. In other words, genetically, it won’t really be a Thylacine, it will be a hybrid. Then they would have to find a compatible species to act as a host incubator; that”s goiing to be tricky because the closest living relative is the Numbat, which is just a teensy bit undersized in comparison. Then they would have to produce sufficient individuals with sufficient genetic differences to make up a viable self-sustaining population. And all those individuals would have to be raised to adulthood and somehow taught to how to survive and breed and raise young in the wild.
It’s not going to happen. The best they can do is produce a pathetic chimaera that has no chance to exist without human assistance; just another freak for the cashed-up to gawk at and the curious to play with in their laboritories.
You want to make a difference about extinction rates? Concentrate your funds, your knowledge, your facilities, all your efforts on protecting existing endangered species and ecosystems, rather than pushing this pointless PR stunt and ego booster.
leefe is correct, this genetic experiment is as real and useful as Carbon Capture Sequestration and Flat Earth.
Better to fund social housing or other public good.
I think you have to understand the context of this proposal. It is made in Tasmania, the second state of Australia that is often left off the map of Australia. The colony started as a prison camp and the European settlers demonstrated their agricultural skills by blaming the Tasmania Tiger for damage to stock likely done by settlers dogs. The Tasmanian Education system is renown for having the least number of Year 12 graduates because nothing very much ever happens in Tasmania to encourage the generations of settlers to think.
Tasmania is best remembered as the finish line for the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race since 1945, the MONA Art Collection. too much gambling and the only metropolitan capital from which you can see the bush from the main street.
We caused their extinction. If we can bring them back, then I say “go for it.”
Koalas could one day become extinct. Governments and land-clearing companies don’t seem to give a stuff.
If they do become extinct – and sometime in the future science could reverse that extinction – people will be demanding it.
Michael,
Well, that’s what the Koala’s get for not making big donations to either of the major parties.
Micahel:
Read my earlier comment and think about it. I’m not just ranting for the sake of it, I’ve dug into this to considerable depth with a lot of highly knowledgable people. It’s pipe-dreaming and it won’t happen. They’ve been blathering on about it for ages and they’re not one step closer to making it a reality because there are too many insurmountable hurdles.
IF we could bring them back, I’d be all for it. The fact is, we can’t. It is not possible. And it’s also a massive waste of resources and a distraction of the worst kind because you know what people will take from all this? “Oh, it doesn’t matter if we kill off this, that and t’other, we’ll just de-extinct them later.” Some hazy nebulous later that will never transpire because the entire ecosystem that animal/plant needed, and was part of, is gone.
Protect what we still have before it’s too late and stop fantasising about things we have lost that will never be again.
“What’s done is done
And what’s won is won
And what’s lost is lost and gone forever”
NEC: This entire nation started out as a penal colony, so no Australians have the right to crow over others about historical beginnings except Aboriginal people.
leefe, I’ve read your comment and I have no problem or argument with it. We all have different opinions, and I respect yours.
I was thinking of the Aboriginal people whose totem was the Thylacine. I’ve spent a lot of time in Aboriginal communities and I’m aware of how important their totem is to them. They are not just animals: they are their brothers and sisters.
If it’s important for them, then I’m happy with that.
Yes, the OZ enviro is pretty stuffed and the full consequences are not yet fully manifest; understood..
What a dream, to restore it.
One day, but a fair way into the future. The Americans will then lift the technology and create a new break out Jurassic Park and then heaven help the lot of them. More dinosaurs than Federal Parliament…
I have no issue with the sentiment, Michael. It’s the practicalitiies that concern me, and those practicalities mean that It. Will. Not. Happen.
Focus on what we can do now, to help where it’s most needed, not on this pie-in-the-sky PR stunt.
For those who haven’t read it, Colossal Biosciences also work on “critically endangered species protection and the repopulation of critical ecosystems,” which to me, is also helping where it is most needed.
Putting aside the reasons for and against for, or attempting to, restore the Tasmanian Tiger one thing is certain: science is our best bet for saving this planet.
Did anyone happen to notice, btw, how the Yellowstone ecosystem flourished since wolves were reintroduced?
Roswell, are you thinking of a doco, I think on SBS, about a week or so ago?
They have been murdering their wolves in the north westernt US, because they are red staters, but the doco I Ithink, was covering the positive impacts of returning wolves to one of their big parks.