US-based biotechnology and genetic engineering firm Colossal Biosciences has signed an agreement with Mauritian Wildlife Foundation to help bring back the dodo from extinction.
“The dodo, a bird intimately woven in the DNA of Mauritius, is also sadly iconic for the role mankind played in its extinction. It also symbolizes efforts to prevent species extinctions,” said Vikash Tatayah, conservation director at the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation.
“We are so grateful for Colossal’s technologies and the promise to return this iconic species, extinct since the 1680s, to its native environment,” he added.
The dodo became extinct in the 17th Century, around 100 years after it was first discovered.
The agreement comes about 10 months after Colossal Biosciences announced its plans to help revive and rewild the flightless dodo, which was native to Mauritius.
At the time, Vice reported that the team involved in the project envisaged the return of a “proxy” version
of the bird – a species with edited DNA and not an exact clone.
The team was led by US-based evolutionary scientist Professor Beth Shapiro said that they had managed to sequence the DNA of a dodo.
According to the partnership agreement signed by Colossal Biosciences and the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, they will also work on the genetic rescue of the pink pigeon.
There are roughly 500 of them left in Mauritius, and the birds are threatened from a lack of genetic diversity.
Colossal’s Avian Genomics Group will support in identifying lost diversity from historical samples and use its gene-editing technology to confer key diversity back into the pink pigeon population.