Extinct giant bird being brought back to life
The moa bird, which has been extinct for 600 years, could make a return to the world. The herbivore weighed 500 pounds and stood about 12 to 13 feet tall.
The flightless bird was sacred to the Maori people, the native populace of New Zealand. According to their oral traditions, they were a largely docile bird. According to a study in Quaternary Science Reviews, they became extinct due to overhunting by humans.
'Peter Jackson was really excited about the work that we're doing. He knew we were working on the mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger, and then the dodo, and he was very upset that we were not working on the moa,' Ben Lamm, who founded The Colossal Foundation, told 'Elizabeth Vargas Reports.'
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'If we can ever bring back species that we as mankind had a role in their extinction, while also building technologies to help conservation, (we can) help to return something that's sacred, back to the Maori people, the indigenous people of New Zealand, all while kind of inspiring kids. It kind of checked all of the boxes,' he added.
Lamm noted that Jackson 'offered to accelerate the efforts with funding.'
The moa birds will be reintroduced into areas on the South Island of New Zealand allocated by the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre.
Lamm added that the moa birds will have the capacity to reproduce with themselves thanks to engineered additional genetic diversity that allows previously extinct animal populations to reproduce.
'Our goal is to build sustainable populations with enough genetic diversity that they can thrive on their own.' The foundation 'doesn't have to make more for New Zealand, they can actually just build up their own flock over time,' he said.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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