How the process of de-extinction will be used to restore this fabled species
The debate on whether the ivory-billed woodpecker is actually extinct may be ongoing, but a genetic engineering company is aiming to restore the fabled species to its natural habitat.
In 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed de-listing the ivory-billed woodpecker from protections under the Endangered Species Act due to the likelihood that the iconic American avian species is now extinct.
Colossal Biosciences, a U.S.-based biotechnology company, plans to use the process of de-extinction to bring the ivory-billed woodpecker back, the company announced on Tuesday. The research is one of the flagship projects of The Colossal Foundation, a newly launched philanthropic organization that will fund research to gather and analyze DNA to understand the journey forward for de-extinction and future reintroduction in 2025.
Most of the current technology on the extinction platform is based on cloning -- the same methods that allowed for the creation of Dolly the sheep in 1996, Matt James, chief animal officer of Colossal Biosciences and executive director of The Colossal Foundation, told ABC News. But in a process designed specifically for birds, researchers plan on sequencing the genome before sequencing the DNA of all the closest-living relatives to the ivory-billed woodpecker.
Scientists will then use a computational biology platform that will edit the living species' genetic makeup to reflect the lost species, James said.
The ivory-billed woodpecker -- known for its bright red cockade, white wing patches and long ivory bill -- was native to the bottomland forests and the extensive pine forests in the southern U.S., from Florida to Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas.
Populations declined drastically in the 1800s as the forests were cleared for human settlement, and by the late 19th century sightings were so rare that people began taking the birds for museums and private collections, Fitzpatrick said. There was "widespread collection" of the species' feathers and parts, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Rediscovered in the 1920s, researchers had taken interest in studying and preserving the species in the decades that followed. Sightings dwindled significantly just before the end of World War II, with the last uncontested sighting occurring in April 1944 on the Singer Tract in the Tensas River region of northeast Louisiana, according to the FWS.
There have been reports of sightings of the bird from the 1950s to 1990s, and in the 1960s, scientists found an active nest in which a feather was recovered, Fitzpatrick said.
The 2021 decision to de-list the species from the Endangered Species Act was likely "premature," John W. Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University, told ABC News at the time.
A bird thought to be an ivory-billed woodpecker was reported in 2004 in east Arkansas, John White, founder and CEO of Birda, a bird-watching app, told ABC News last year.
There have been more proposed sightings since. In 2021, a researcher working in Louisiana and Mississippi obtained photographic and acoustic evidence of the bird.
The FWS announced last year that the proposal to de-list the ivory-billed woodpecker from the Endangered Species Act has been postponed while researchers continue to analyze and review the information.
A lot of the research the company is conducting in its efforts to bring back the ivory-billed woodpecker will be used to create novel technologies that allow for the preservation of avian species as a whole, James said.
Colossal Biosciences has previously made announcements for efforts to restore other long-extinct species, such as a woolly mammoth and dodo bird.
While critics of de-extinction warn of unsuccessful environmental management actions and the potential for risks to outweigh the benefits, the scientists at Colossal Biosciences pursue de-extinction with the idea of trying to restore a role or function that an animal played in an ecosystem, James said.
"So we're always focused on, 'How does de extinction play this important role in the broader scheme?'" he said. "...It's really trying to restore species we've lost while trying to keep species from going extinct."
