Scientific criticism followed fast to the news that a company called Colossal had produced three genetically engineered dire wolves. Biologist Pepper Trail points out the habitat no longer exists for an animal that was adapted for preying on now-extinct ground sloths and giant bison. And the gene “edits” only involved 14 genes, with 20 differences between living gray wolves and extinct dire wolves.
The goal of conservation is not to preserve individual animals, Trail writes, it is to help populations sustain themselves in their native habitats and for that we have a long way to go.