Should the Wooly Mammoth Live Again?

Should we be cloning Wooly Mammoths?

  • No, They died for a reason.

    Votes: 73 28.5%
  • Yes, we could learn a lot from studying a live one.

    Votes: 117 45.7%
  • No, Momma elephant doesn't want a hairy kid.

    Votes: 8 3.1%
  • Yes, I want my own pet Wolly.

    Votes: 48 18.8%
  • Beats me, what is a wolly mammoth?

    Votes: 10 3.9%

  • Total voters
    256
I am not sure what would be gained from a scientific stand point that we do not already know about them. In the big picture they did die out recently enough that we know much about them and the environment in which they lived. I think to some degree the ability to clone any animal overlooks a pretty basic fact which is you can bring back something that physically replicates the animal but because the environment they are being brought into is not similar I am not sure that you will have a true insight into their behavior.

Animals of which we only have specualtion about their appearance or physiology is a different story and might yield much more information. Animals that have become extinct due to the impact of man but whose basic environment still exists might successfully be re-introduced in their environment and there may even be a beneficial effect if we were to do so.

Just my two cents......
 
Just like the Bison, mammoths are large, easy to count, slow to breed and relatively speaking, didn't die out all that long ago. Jurasic Park really doesn't apply here.

What's really scary is a species that is so sucessful that they cause mass extinctions of untold thousands of species small and large. More extinctions happen every day in persuit of resources. So sucessful they may even threaten the ability of the planet to support life some day.

We have a problem far, far worse than any Jurasic Park scenerio. Jacques Cousteau in the 1960's was asked by a reporter "What do you see as the world greatest problem". The reporter was expecting him to respond with an answer regarding mans impact on the oceans, but rather got the response "The greatest problem facing mankind is his own success. The earth cannot sustain the growing population of human kind".


Yep. Well said, Jacques.

Scientists say this is the last century for large animals in the wild. Bears, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, all gone in 80 years. We may be forced to clone simply to have ANY around.

PJ O'Rourke said it best about mankind's spread to all corners of the globe, when he stated "There's just enough of me, and way too much of you."
 
I think to some degree the ability to clone any animal overlooks a pretty basic fact which is you can bring back something that physically replicates the animal but because the environment they are being brought into is not similar I am not sure that you will have a true insight into their behavior.
Probably more important than the environment (in this case) would be that these are long-lived intelligent animals where you've got cultural transmission of behavior in the mix. I'm guessing some researchers would be pretty interested just to look for any unexpected differences from elephants and try to explain those, though.
 
Probably more important than the environment (in this case) would be that these are long-lived intelligent animals where you've got cultural transmission of behavior in the mix. I'm guessing some researchers would be pretty interested just to look for any unexpected differences from elephants and try to explain those, though.

Agreed.

I just think that overall there is more of curiosity element in the case of the Wooly Mammoth than a scientific one. Though I understand that often in science the knowledge we can gain in pursuit of one goal often pays dividends way beyond the initial project. In a perfect world we would have money to clone all sorts of animals but in reality we see less and less money going to science unless their is an immediate commercial return.

I'd rather see the money being used to here to perserving the mammoths modern day descendants -elephants. At the rate they are going we will be talking about cloning them in a few years.......

I have gotten off-topic though so I apologize.

Great poll Simi!!
 
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Get on it!

Hunting allowed, but only with a hand hewn spear and flint knife.

Remember the buffalo coat? Mammoth. That would be awesome.

Of course, only after slaying it with your hand made weapons.
 
Can we bring Godzilla to life while we're at it?

Godzilla_%2754_design.jpg
 
I think you may need to create a 'herd' as they may well have been 'social creatures', like elephants.

Ready for a herd of Wooly Mammoths ?

I think you may need to create a 'herd' as Godzilla's may well be 'social creatures' like Wooly Mammoths. :)
 
It was a prime food target for ancients in the Northern Hemisphere. They evolved from what is now the Indian elephant. They survived the Ice Ages, but they couldn't survive humans. Anything that survived India and human hunters deserved to be brought back. One wouldn't be enough; they'd need a herd. Wouldn't that be amazing? Just keep the rich guys with elephant guns away.
 
Agreed, Freds.Band. They were corralled and ran off cliffs.

Only problem is, where would they live?? There isn't sufficient room for the elephants we currently have, sadly.
 
I couldn't do the survey since none of the choices fit my view.. I would love to see a live wooly mammoth ... would love for them to thrive and reproduce... bur NO hopefully not, would break my heart to watch people kill them off for sport..
 
The last Mammoths died around 10,000 years ago and most likely by being hunted by Man. I see no issue bringing them back as they have not been gone long enough in geological time to become a major risk to current fauna. Same thing goes for the Dodo and other species exterminated by Man for food, profit or ignorance. This is just my opinion, I can see how Man could also let this get out of control by trying to bring back creatures that do not belong in this "age"
 
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