Do you think the woolly mammoth should be "brought back to life" by cloning?

[dave362]

Some scientists would like to clone the woolly mammoth, an extinct species of elephant. Research is being conducted to refine the technology needed to accomplish it. What are your thoughts on this? Should we or should we not bring it back?

[veronikam]

Although it would be awesome to be able to witness animals from hundreds of years ago, like the woolly mammoth, I don't think they should be brought back to life. This is because certain animals that are brought back could harm the ecosystems that are in place today or change environments, become invasive, and many other factors. I think it would be okay for animals that are going extinct today or have been extinct in recent years. The woolly mammoth is a big creature, where would scientists put it? Where would these animals live that wouldn't affect our environment and other animals?

[jasmine]

What's the point in bringing these animals back to life. Why don't they focus on protecting the existing animals from going extinct? Tigers are one of the endangered species, there are only 3900 tigers around the world, so why not spent time and effort to protect Tigers insted. One day some crazy scientist will come up with the idea of waking up Neanderthal species.

[ricky1874]

No, I don't think the woolly mammoth should be brought back if possible through cloning. One of the reasons I believe this, is an animal of this size would take up a lot of resources to survive. And this would take up resources like food and habitat away from other animals. And with massive tusks, they would be a threat to elephants and other animals. And if they decide to keep them in zoos instead of the wild, I think that would be cruel. Why would you bring a species back to life just to have them caged up and just used as a display? Besides, the woolly mammoth has been extinct for thousands of years. Now if they where trying to bring back the Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, I would say yes because it has only been extinct for less than 100 years.

[patrickwass]

I don't think we should mess with mother nature and bring things back have died off. I believe once something dies, we should just leave it that way. Some people believe that a life form has a lot to do with the soul. How would the clone think? Would it think like the original or would it be completely different? There is simply too much we don’t know. After watching the Jurassic movies I think I will past on cloning .

[kingsnite]

I personally don't think the woolly mammoth should be brought back to life. I will admit that it would be interesting to see if scientist could actually make this possible. If scientist could bring back to life something of this size and magnitude then that means other life forms such as, dinosaurs could possibly be brought back to life with the proper DNA. The part that concerns me is that the woolly mammoth went extinct for a reason. To integrate a woolly mammoth in today's ecosystem could cause more problems than expected. Even with the current global warming we are experiencing, it could hurt the woolly mammoth and the only way the animal could survive is through adapting which may take years of passing genes on to future offsprings. It would be interesting to observe this creature, but on another note, scientist could push this boundary even further looking for ways to bring other organisms back to life.

[sammyk]

Yes! I think the woolly mammoth should be brought back to life by cloning. It would be an amazing feat to "de-extinct" prehistoric animals, like the woolly mammoth that at first glance, seem to exist as giant furry elephants. After looking into the process of de-extinction, the purpose of bringing back these species is to allow them to function as a part of the ecosystem. For woolly mammoths in particular, they could potentially slow down the process of permafrost melting. They might also benefit the human race as their hemoglobin is a suspected cure for certain diseases. Generally, bringing back this extinct species would pave the way to bringing back other extinct animals, like certain species of birds or felines. Personally, I think it would be a relief to know that species could be brought back in the first place, as many important animals are currently in danger of going extinct.

[paul480]

Yes! I think the woolly mammoth should be brought back to life by cloning. It would be an amazing feat to "de-extinct" prehistoric animals, like the woolly mammoth that at first glance, seem to exist as giant furry elephants. After looking into the process of de-extinction, the purpose of bringing back these species is to allow them to function as a part of the ecosystem. For woolly mammoths in particular, they could potentially slow down the process of permafrost melting. They might also benefit the human race as their hemoglobin is a suspected cure for certain diseases. Generally, bringing back this extinct species would pave the way to bringing back other extinct animals, like certain species of birds or felines. Personally, I think it would be a relief to know that species could be brought back in the first place, as many important animals are currently in danger of going extinct.

I've been fascinated with the mammoth since first learning about it as a child. I agree that it would be amazing to see such a massive prehistoric animal in real life however, I feel that the consequences of doing such a thing would be catastrophic to our ecosystem and environment. These creatures did not survive reasons due to climate change and the world was much colder back then so they would almost certainly have even more trouble surviving now in our much hotter environment. It would be sad to see something brought back to life for only a short amount of time.

[dave23]

I personally believe that this would be fine as long as it could be done in an ethical way. We must consider factors such as the fact that this animal already went extinct because of climate change and it would most likely be hard for them to survive today. Also, introducing new animals to an already well established eco system can cause problems as well. These are all things we need to think about because with new technology and knowledge, we are actually pushing ourselves into a time where we can think of these things as possible. After doing a little bit of research, I found online that a Harvard professor named George Church is currently attempting to genetically resurrect the woolly mammoth. He is hoping that by doing this, we can reverse climate change. While this is an interesting concept, others are skeptical about it. Overall, I think this is something that would be super cool, but we need to make sure to consider the ethical factors in this.

[mr_iqman]

Do I think that scientists should bring back the woolly mammoth by cloning? As interesting as it would be to see a pre-historic creature, I think that maybe it would be dangerous. We don't know much about the temperament of the woolly mammoth and how they would adapt to how the world is now. Not to mention that if they were to clone the mammoth, it would not be a free-roaming animal. It would be a contained species, and I think that is kind of sad on the animal's part. Another concern of mine would be if successfully cloned, who is to say that it would stop there, next thing you know, we are cloning dinosaurs, and its real-world Jurassic park.