De-extinction is the process of recreating an extinct species, wherein the resulting animal phenotypically resembles the extinct one, but it is not genetically identical. Recently, CRISPR-Cas9 technologies, stem cell engineering, and other gene editing techniques have allowed de-extinction to creep closer to reality. De-extinction has the potential to be a revolutionary conservation tool, but as the science and technology that makes it possible marches forward, it becomes more important than ever to consider its other outcomes. The assisted reproductive technologies that enable de-extinction projects have profound implications for human and animal reproduction, and the mammoth remains trade demonstrates exploitation in the search for genetic materials. Here, we use web scraping and GIS mapping tools to analyze and examine the actor networks that form between museums, resource extraction sites, laboratories, venture capitalists, and research institutions funding and carrying out the de-extinction of the Woolly Mammoth, Thylacine, and Northern White Rhinoceros. In doing so, we find emerging evidence that contemporary biotechnological pursuits bear a neocolonial tinge and that de-extinction projects' conservation narratives may obscure the many other consequences of biotechnological advancement.
Livia Zhu (Tue,) studied this question.