Dire Wolfs: The Revival- beneficial or harmful to the environment and what’s the goal?

Photo Source: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dire-wolves-colossal-de-extinction-got

The Dire Wolf, or scientific term “Aenocyn Dirus” is estimated to be extinct for around 13,000 years. Recently, a company called Colossal Bioscience has brought back to life the long extinct Dire Wolf, or have they? Let's first dive into what a Dire Wolf was like.

Once roaming the Americas during the late pleistocene and early holocene periods, their remains have been found in habitats such as plains, grasslands, mountains and the savannah of South America. They fed on an array of animals as a carnivorous animal.

What does Colossal intend on achieving?

From what I can gather so far the exact goal from Colossal is unclear other than to educate and inform the public. But will the wolves be rehabilitated into the natural world? Apparently no, according to Beth Shapiro the Chief Science Officer of Colossal. Instead they currently reside on a 2,000 acre property in an undisclosed location. They managed to clone these wolves in a lab by editing the DNA of Gray Wolf cells and including some traits of the long extinct Dire Wolf, and they used this by creating viable embryos in a lab. These are closer to genetically modified Gray Wolves rather than the long extinct Dire Wolf of the Americas.

Now, what would happen if Dire Wolves or such as genetically modified Wolves are released into the natural ecosystem of the Americas again?

For starters, over the past 10,000 to 13,000 years since the Dire Wolf extinction, the ecosystem and species have evolved without them. This would put them in direct competition with other carnivorous or even some omnivorous animals such as the Grey Wolf, Coyote, Pumas, Grizzly Bears, Black Bears and Brown Bears. The direct competition for Deer, Bison and Fish to name a few would also harm plants and other aspects of the natural world if a new species was released into the wild. Although that does not seem like the intention at this time. But then what’s the point? I agree that it’s critical that the public is educated on such issues. I do often hear from many how tragic the extinction of the Tasmanian Tiger is but they often don’t have that same opinion to the harm that is being done with the Dingo fence in Australia. Until it’s too late of course. As a society on a global scale we can learn from this amazing frontier in bioscience, but we need to tread with caution as history has shown us that human interference into the laws of the natural world can often lead to quite catastrophic results.

In conclusion, I feel this is a huge achievement. But at what cost? There are other appropriate measures in educating about extinction, although I also feel the media coverage has missed the point in regards to what Colossal has set out to teach, with constant references to Jurassic Park and Game of Thrones but as stated in interviews the goal is to further educate the public on extinctions on a global scale. 

Down below is a demonstration of how much the ecosystem of the Americas has changed since the Pleistocene period.

Pleistocene Epoch: 2.5 million to 11,700 years ago- Credit: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32268-7

Holocene Epoch: Starting around 11,700 years ago- Credit: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00334-019-00721-w

Sources: 

https://colossal.com/direwolf/science/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dire_wolf

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/04/09/the-dire-wolf-is-back-kind-of-is-jurassic-park-next/82993563007/#:~:text=Colossal%20has%20no%20plans%20to,and%20are%20monitored%2C%20she%20said.

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/407781/dire-wolves-deextinction-colossal-biosciences

https://australian.museum/learn/australia-over-time/evolving-landscape/the-pleistocene-epoch/#:~:text=The%20Pleistocene%20Epoch%20(2.5%20million%20to%2011%2C700%20years%20ago),-Updated%2023%2F03&text=During%20the%20Pleistocene%20(2.5%20million,sea%20levels%20were%20much%20lower.