Biotech firm aims to revive extinct ivory-billed woodpecker by 2025

The ongoing debate about the ivory-billed woodpecker’s extinction continues, but a genetic engineering firm aims to revive this legendary species.

In 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service suggested removing the ivory-billed woodpecker from the Endangered Species Act, considering it likely extinct.

Colossal Biosciences, a biotechnology firm in the U.S., announced plans on Tuesday to use de-extinction techniques to bring back the ivory-billed woodpecker.

This initiative is part of The Colossal Foundation‘s flagship projects, financing research to analyse DNA for potential de-extinction and reintroduction by 2025.

Matt James, chief animal officer of Colossal Biosciences, explained current extinction technology primarily relies on cloning. This is similar to that used for Dolly the sheep in 1996.

The process for birds involves sequencing the genome and comparing it with the DNA of the closest living relatives.

Using a computational biology platform, scientists plan to edit the genetic makeup of living species to match that of the extinct bird.

The ivory-billed woodpecker

Distinguished by its red cockade, white wing patches, and long ivory bill, the ivory-billed woodpecker inhabited the bottomland forests and extensive pine forests in the southern U.S., ranging from Florida to Illinois, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Populations sharply declined in the 1800s due to deforestation for human settlement. By the late 19th century, sightings were so rare specimens were collected for museums and private collections, according to Fitzpatrick. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service noted widespread collection of the bird’s feathers and parts.

Rediscovered in the 1920s, the species created research interest and protection efforts in subsequent decades.

Sightings significantly decreased before World War II ended. The last confirmed sighting was in April 1944, in the Singer Tract of northeast Louisiana.

Reports of sightings persisted from the 1950s to the 1990s. In the 1960s, scientists found an active nest and recovered a feather, Fitzpatrick noted.

John W. Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, expressed in 2021 that the decision to de-list the species from the Endangered Species Act might have been “premature.”

A supposed sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker was reported in east Arkansas in 2004, stated John White, founder and CEO of the bird-watching app Birda. Additional sightings have been proposed since. In 2021, a researcher in Louisiana and Mississippi provided photographic and acoustic evidence of the bird.

The search for the bird

The FWS is postponing their proposal to de-list the ivory-billed woodpecker from the Endangered Species Act while ongoing research continues.

James says the research to revive the ivory-billed woodpecker might lead to new technologies for preserving avian species.

Colossal Biosciences has previously announced efforts to restore other long-extinct species, such as the woolly mammoth and the dodo bird.

While critics of de-extinction caution about potential environmental management failures and risks outweighing the benefits, scientists at Colossal Biosciences aim to restore the ecological roles of extinct species, said James. He emphasised their focus on stopping further extinctions while reviving lost species.