I understand that the science behind this is exciting and has potential, but the mammoths ran out of suitable habitat 5,000 years before climate change absolutely devastated subarctic habitats. What can actually be done with resurrected mammoths that wont lead to them living a miserable existence.
I doubt there's a plan to reintroduce them to the wild. If they ever succeed then they will likely only create them for scientific study and to prove out the theories to show it can be done. At best these will be animals kept in a couple of zoos until their species dies out again, or they create a breeding program robust enough to stock other zoos.
It sounds like they do want to reintroduce them...
Colossal has long claimed that mammoths, should they return to the grasslands in the planet’s northernmost reaches in sufficient numbers, would help slow down permafrost thaw.
They also would be elephant hybrids so not quite mammoths of old.
Ok, that sounds a bit dumb. Obviously I didn't read the article, does it explain how adding mammoths to the artic will slow permafrost that? It's mammoth poop that great of an insulator?
It says they believe that mammoths, bison, horses, and reindeer will trample the grass, knock down trees and compact the snow which will cool the ground, based on a small 2020 study in Siberia that showed places that kept those animals, minus mammoths, had lower soil temps.
I think a much larger test is in order before I buy that's going to save the permafrost.
