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by 6DM 591 days ago
The immediate question that comes to mind for me is where would they live? Usually if they die off it's because they lost their habitat to some destructive force. Their evolutionary advantage or balance is gone. So even if they were the original animal brought back from extinction, what's to keep them from dying out again.
3 comments
graemep 591 days ago
Like a lot of mega-fauna a likely cause is humans wiped them out, not that their habitat does not exist. Mammoths only became complete extinct a few thousand years ago.
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BigGreenJorts 591 days ago
While in most cases I fully agree with this, I think there are some key examples that were simply lost to over-hunting/poaching. Ones that comes to mind are the various white rhino species, Dodos, some Mega turtles of Galapagos mentioned in the article. In the case of the Rhinos, there has been a concerted effort to maintain their habitat, but that also makes protecting against poachers near impossible. In the case of artificial repopulation efforts like these, they are protected by the breeding program, with a lofty goal of producing enough specimen to return to their original habitat.

I do think returning the Quagga or Whooly Mammoth is probably pointless, but they are high profile proof of concept.

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DrScientist 591 days ago
> to some destructive force.

If that destructive force was humans then there is a possibility at least for change ( cf the rebounding of the whale population post hunting ban ) - however in this case I'd agree that in terms of needing a think woolly coat - probably not a good time to bring something like that back.

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ipaddr 591 days ago
Why parts of the earth are covered in snow and ice and will still be at 2 degrees hotter.
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DrScientist 590 days ago
Places like the Russian tundra are heating up more than 2 degrees - 2 degrees is an average. For reasons beyond my expertise it appears places like the near artic are seeing the biggest effects - much much bigger than 2 degrees.

See https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/un-confirms-hottes...

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ipaddr 590 days ago
Even if they heat up 8c you are dealing with an average temp of -40 to -16
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DrScientist 582 days ago
If you are a woolly mammoth - it's not the average temp that matters - it's can you survive the extremes.

So a temperature of 100F in Siberia isn't necessarily good - even for a short period.

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