What extinct species would you clone if you were a billionaire?

Well you can't say that 100%. Mabye 99.9%, but not 100%. There's always that .1% chance that we couldn't missed it.

 

With birds you can say 100%. You may not realize how connected the birding community is. I know people who travel around the country just to see a single unusual bird. Something like the P.P. which had gregarious habits and easily accessible habitats would have been noticed.

I myself went chasing a rare-ish bird (at least to the area) today just on a hint that I might be able to find it.

 

Ah, I should have said with North American birds.

There may be a few rare exceptions to this in birds that have a highly secretive behavior (rails, bitterns, etc.).

 

Not to mention the fact that along with uncontrolled hunting, an additional factor in the loss of the passenger pigeon was the near complete destruction of their preferred habitat.

 

Poor Passanger Pigeons. From hero to zero. Once numbering in the millions, then left blumbering. I don't why, but whenever I hear the name Martha, I think of elephants (in particular Woolly Mammoths) instead of the last Passanger Pigeon. I kind of find it sad that there's a memorial to the Passanger Pigeon where Martha's exhibit was at the Cincinnati Zoo but nothing to Incas who died in the very same enclosure nearly four years later. Do you guys even know who Incas is?

 

The Passenger Pigeon Memorial doesn't only commemorate the passenger pigeon. There is a display on "Incas" and the Carolina parakeets as well. There are also displays on what is being done to save today's endangered species.

 

Really!! Good. I thought it was only for Martha and Passanger Pigeons. I'm glad Carolina Parakeets get their spot, too. Although, I wish neither had to have a memorial.

 

Yeah along the walls are tanks that pertain a different subject about endangered species. On another note, if you'd like there's a chance that you can see Martha in Cincinnati. Occasionally the Smithsonian will bring her to the zoo for a visit and the 100 year anniversary is coming up so I have a feeling she will be there.

1. Tells about the endangered animals at the zoo (at the time) gorillas, pygmy hippos, nene geese, Malayan tapirs, and Sumatran rhinoceros.
2. Other endangered species and what we can do to save them.
3. Trapping and netting of the each species.
4. Middle-Small exhibit containing replicas of passenger pigeons + paintings of both species.
5. The slaughter of the animals.
6. Replicas of Martha and Incas.
7. Tells that over 100,000,000 passenger pigeons crossed the sky.
8. Martha's transfer to the Smithsonian and the loss of Incas's carcass.
9. Newspapers and other documents on Martha's death.

 

Does the zoo have Pygmy Hippos by the gorilla forest exhibit.

 

No the zoo hasn't had pygmy hippos since the 1980's maybe.

 

The Cincinnati Zoo hasn't kept pygmy hippopotamuses in years. The pygmy hippopotamuses, along with the Malayan tapirs, were kept in the Elephant House prior to its renovation into Vanish Giants, which opened in 2000.

 

My rule would be anything that still has an ecological niche and disappeared because of Human action.

 

Risking the moderators and all I wouldn't bring anything back until we could control the human population explosion, so I would.........

Work on the HIV virus so instead of killing people and leaving millions of children as orphans in Africa etc it sterilized people but only after they had had one possibly two children max. And then I'd spread it as far and as fast as I could around the world.

A win win situation, the population is controlled, a deadly disease is eradicated.

failing that Charles Darwin to let him see how widely embraced his theory has become.

 

You guys! What about Megalania? The Megalania was basically a gigantic komodo dragon that stalked the plains of ancient Australia hunting giant marsupials tens of thousands of years ago. I myself would love to see a giant extinct lizard! I definitely think this big bad ugly brute should deserve more votes, I mean come on, he was probably the coolest predator ever to live in Australia! Give him some attention!

 

No you can't do better than Elvis!

 

I'd bring back the mammoth ,only because its an iconic animal that would bring a lot of money and interest into the cloning industry ,which would then help other animals be brought back .
If they do bring bring back extinct animals what zoo would be able to have them ?Also what would their conservation status be ? EW? Or would IUCN have to make a new status for the cloned animals ?

 

There's no food left for the animal except Humans in Australia. All you'd do is kill off a ton of people and kangaroos (which would cause smaller predators to seek other food sources and hurt the small wildlife) and get the Megalania driven to extinction again. I'd love to see one of those big guys, too, but we are mostly talking about species that actually have some sort of conservational value to them being cloned back.

~Thylo

 

True, maybe we can use them to get rid of all those ferals

Then again, aren't those buffalo pure Wild Waters?

~Thylo