Graphic of a wooly mammoth in a snowy landscape

LEONELLO CALVETTI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images

Should We Bring Back Woolly Mammoths?

January 17, 2022

As You Read: Identify one way a mammoth could help its habitat and one way it could cause harm.

Imagine a furry elephant. Creatures like that, called woolly mammoths, once lived in colder parts of the world. They became extinct thousands of years ago, but what if they were to return from the dead?

A company called Colossal hopes to bring back woolly mammoths with a process called de-extinction. It’ll use DNA from a frozen mammoth. DNA is in cells, and it decides how living things look and behave. Scientists will copy the DNA into the cells of the mammoth’s closest living relative, the Asian elephant.

Some people think it would be exciting to see mammoths alive. But many scientists worry de-extinction could cause more harm than good.

Should we bring these extinct creatures back from the dead?

Imagine a furry elephant. Creatures like that once lived in colder parts of the world. They were called woolly mammoths. They became extinct thousands of years ago. But what if they were to return from the dead?

A company called Colossal hopes to bring back woolly mammoths. They will use a process called de-extinction. It uses DNA from a frozen mammoth. DNA is in cells. It decides how living things look and behave. Scientists will copy the DNA into the cells of the Asian elephant. It is the mammoth’s closest living relative,

Some people think it would be exciting to see mammoths alive. But many scientists worry de-extinction could cause more harm than good.

Should we bring these extinct creatures back from the dead?

YES

Colossal says mammoths could help slow climate change. The frozen soil where they lived is called permafrost. It contains tons of trapped greenhouse gases.

Today, snow covers the permafrost. It is like a blanket that warms the soil. As the soil thaws, it releases greenhouse gases, which speed up climate change.

Colossal says bringing back mammoths could help. They could scrape away some layers of snow as they look for food. Without the snow, cold air could reach the soil and keep it frozen. Gases would stay trapped.

Supporters say the mammoths could help restore their habitat in other ways. They would tear down trees for food. The area might return to the grassy plains it was long ago.

Colossal says mammoths could help slow climate change. The frozen soil where they lived is called permafrost. It contains tons of trapped greenhouse gases.

Today, snow covers the permafrost. It is like a blanket that warms the soil. As the soil thaws, it releases greenhouse gases. That speeds up climate change.

Supporters say the mammoths could help their habitat in other ways. They would tear down trees for food. Then the area might return to the grassy plains it was long ago.

NO

Many scientists say bringing back the mammoth is not likely to slow climate change anytime soon. A few mammoths scraping the snow with their tusks won’t make a real difference. There would need to be millions of mammoths living in the Arctic for hundreds of years before things would get better.

Opponents of the idea also think de-extinction could harm the habitat rather than help it. They say putting a new version of an extinct species in a habitat could hurt the other animals that live there now.

The woolly mammoths could trample the bushes and destroy the trees that some animals use for food or as homes. And the mammoths could eat the grass that many other animals in the area need to survive.

Many scientists say bringing back the mammoth is not likely to slow climate change. A few mammoths scraping the snow won’t make a real difference. There would need to be millions of mammoths living in the Arctic for hundreds of years before things would get better.

People against the idea think de-extinction could harm the habitat rather than help it. They say putting a new version of an extinct species in a habitat could hurt the other animals that live there now.

The woolly mammoths could trample the bushes and destroy the trees that some animals use for food or as homes. And the mammoths could eat the grass that many other animals in the area need to live.