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Rani Clark
Bio 1010 11:30-12:45 TR
4/3/2012
Cloning the Thylacine
Cloning an animal is nothing new to the scientific community. Cloning an extinct animal
however has never been attempted with a successful outcome. The first extinct animal scientists
tried to clone was a Woolly Mammoth without success. The second attempt at resurrecting an
extinct animal is a thylacine cloning project. These animals were brought to extinction by human
interference and so a cloning project was launched to undo the damage done. Cloning an extinct
animal raises ethical questions, not just scientific ones.
The thylacine was the largest carnivorous marsupial of modern times. This animal was
native to Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania and became extinct. Thylacine was perceived as
dangerous and harmful to the economy of farmers in the 1830s and the Van Diemen’s Land
Company introduced bounties on the thylacine in Tasmania. With relentless killings of these
animals as well as attributing factors such as the introduction of dogs and human encroachment
into its habitat thylacine became rare in the wild by the 1920s. In 1928 the Tasmanian Advisory
Committee for Native Fauna recommended to protect any remaining Tasmanian tigers from
being killed, but by then it was too late to undo the damage caused.
The last known thylacine died on September 7th, 1936 in the Hobart Zoo where it had
lived for three years. The Tasmanian government introduced an official protection on July 10th,
1936. This was just fifty-nine days before the last known specimen died in captivity. In the
sixties searches of Tasmania revealed that there may be a strong possibility of thylacine that had
survived in the wild, but no conclusive evidence was found.
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In 1999 the Australian Museum in Sydney began a cloning project that occupies an area
somewhere between the solid science of cloning a living mammal like Dolly the sheep and the
science fiction of Jurassic Park where dinosaurs are cloned from fossilized DNA. To clone
something is to take genetic material from a subject and create an exact duplicate of that subject.
With genetic material from the thylacine museum director Mike Archer hopes to create cloned
individuals and revive the species. To clone an extinct animal is a difficult job. Over time the
genetic material that could be used breaks down. Not only is the genetic material degraded, but
there are no close relatives to the thylacine that could offer a surrogate womb.
Health effects are another obstacle to overcome to successfully clone the thylacine.
Researchers have viewed some adverse health effects in cloned sheep and other mammals such
as premature aging, higher rates of infection and compromised immune systems. Japanese
studies have shown that many cloned animals seem generally healthy when they are born and
earlier in their life, but die young.
Ethical arguments raise the question on whether or not it is appropriate to clone an animal
that has gone extinct. Unlike dinosaurs the thylacine went extinct as a result of man. Not only did
humans hunt the thylacine into near oblivion, but introduced foreign species into the
environment and encroached upon its habitat. To successfully clone the thylacine would mean
restoring animals that have gone extinct as a result of human interference. This would also mean
animals that are endangered could be saved as a result of cloning. Captive breeding programs
and cloning could work together to bring animals, such as the tiger, back from the brink.
Successfully cloning a thylacine would mean being able to resurrect other extinct animals
if the genetic material is there. Cloning a thylacine would make cloning mammals that are still
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alive today easier. Researchers could clone animals whose numbers are decreasing with every
year and save them from extinction.
Preserving the natural world is the common goal of biologists. A successful cloning
project means that no care has to be taken in preserving what is already there and what is left. As
a result of poaching, human encroachment into habitats and environmental changes certain
animal numbers are decreasing. Cloning a healthy river dolphin to place in a captive breeding
program and eventually back into the wild would help increase the population. Such scientific
progress could make animals appear inconsequential because no matter what happens there is a
way to restore the species. Preserving an animal’s habitat would mean nothing if cloning became
a viable and ideal option for endangered animals. Extinct would no longer be forever and the
poaching of animals such as elephants, rhinos and lions would become even more frequent than
it already is.
The money spent on projects to clone extinct animals could be used to help endangered
animals rather than making an attempt to save something that is already lost. Time, effort and
money are placed into cloning projects, such as cloning the thylacine and Woolly Mammoth
which be better spent in an attempt to save the animals that are going to be extinct.
Protecting endangered species is important to me not just as someone who loves nature,
but as someone who cares about the planet. Future generations should be able to see animals like
the river dolphins and pandas in the wild rather than only being able to see them in a book or in
pictures. Trying to undo the damage caused is a nice thought, but only as a thought.
We caused the extinction of the thylacine and so many other creatures that it seems like a
great idea to be able to clone animals and bring the species back, but it does not teach any respect
for nature. Protection and preservation should be our main priority with the natural world.
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Successfully cloning extinct animal’s gives nature less power, it makes animals seem trivial and
that they can be killed over and over without any thought because bringing it back would be easy
to do.
Starting to clone endangered animals would mean that protecting the natural world would
not be important anymore. Life should be treated with respect and cloning takes that respect
away. Human beings were responsible for the thylacines demise and some feel it is our
responsibility to fix what has been destroyed, to undo all of the damage caused by hunting and
ruining habitats. As tragic as the extinction of a species, learning from our mistakes is important
for the future. Educating individuals about the history of the thylacine will help to protect
endangered species that exist today and make these animals more meaningful.
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Bibliography
Taggart, Stewart. "Will Tiasmanian Tiger Clone Work?" Wired.com. 10 June 2002. Web. 04 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news>
Young, Emma. "Tasmanian Tiger DNA Lives Again." Newscientist.com. 20 May 2008. Web. 04 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13928-tasmanian-tiger-dna-lives-again.html>.
"Extinct Tasmanian Tiger Could Be Cloned." Abcnews. Web. 04 Apr. 2012.
<http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=120013&page=1>.
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