We have made the giant wolves return after 10,000 extinct years. The problem is that they “return” may not be the right word

The colossal company is known for its projects to Disxtinct Animals such as mammoth and dodo. However, the biotechnological company has announced its First success In a very different species: the giant wolf (Aenocyon Dirus) or “terrible wolf.” A first success. Colossal, the company dedicated to popular biotechnology for its efforts to return extinct species to life, has claimed to have achieved the feat With the giant wolf. Triple. Animals raised by the company are rather hybrid between this species and contemporary wolves, but the work can be a before and after in the efforts for Dextinction of species. Aenocyon Dirus. The giant wolf is not a wolf itself. This species belongs to the same taxonomic group (Canine) than domestic dogs, wolves, coyotes or jackals. It is estimated that they shared a last common ancestor makes about six million yearsso it can be considered a close relative in relative terms. This species inhabited the Americas During the late pleistocene. The most recent remains of these animals date from about 13,000 years ago. Romulo, Remo and Khaleesi. For now there are more doubts than the certainties we have about the process carried out by the American company. Something we do know is that the company has three young that were born in October 2024 and were baptized as Romulo, Remo and Khaleesi. Parallel processes. According to describes its own companythe recovery process began on two parallel paths. The first departed with obtaining the DNA of the extinct animal, something that was achieved thanks to remains obtained in a skull and a tooth of the extinct animal. In parallel, blood samples were obtained from a gray wolf, after which both DNA had to be sequenced. From there the processes join through the alignment of the two sequences. Once the available genetic information is combined, it is possible to “filter variants”, that is, to study the differences between the two species depending on their genetics. With this it is possible to edit the genes of the gray wolf, one by one, until it is resembled the giant wolf as much as possible (the team made 20 alterations in 14 genes in this phase). The final phases are those of the cloning process. Once the alterations have been introduced, a cell nucleus, it is introduced into reproductive cells. In this case, the company resorted not to a wolf but to a common bitch as the belly of the creatures to be born. The other Colossal plans. The colossal company is a usual on the covers thanks to its perhaps not so crazy plans of Dextinction of species. In your list of species to return from the beyond are The mammoth, The dodo And even the Tasmania tiger. What is at stake. Disxtinct Species is much more than an altruistic action: genetic information is information and this has an entire economy behind. During the UN conference on the UN biological diversity of 2022, One of the topics to be addressed It was in the digital information about sequences or DSI, the genetic information we compile from nature. In the genes of plants, animals and unicellular beings are the plans for the synthesization of very different compounds, some of them useful for example for the pharmaceutical industry. Until now, the question about To whom intellectual property belongs In a case like the Dextinction The mammoth was only theoretical. Now the need to clear these doubts becomes more latent than ever. In Xataka | Mammoth recovery is the flagship of an American company. Now he has just taken an important step Image | Colossal

Congress was regulated by food waste in Spain. And it has ended up approving wolves hunting

The Wolf It sneaks In Congress. Again. And this time with such resounding consequences and after such an unexpected turn that has even called attention of the foreign press. Yesterday the lower house He endorsed That the wolf loses the armor he had achieved in 2021 and can be funded again north of the Duero, something that the PP had tried In 2024. Moreover, Congress has also opened the door that if the community legal framework changes (and in Brussels They already work so that it is) the protection of the wolf is reduced to the south of the river. The curious thing is the shortcut that has been used to retouch the wolf’s legal framework: The law on food waste. What happened? That the wolf has begun to lose its legal armor in Spain. Or what is the same, it will fallen again. At the moment north of the Duero, although once changed The community regulatory framework (Something what He already works the European Commission) its protection could also be reduced to the south. The key step for this regulatory modification was given yesterday in Congress thanks to the votes of the PP, Vox, Junts and PNV. What exactly has changed? The legal framework. Yesterday, during the processing of the food waste law, the lower house gave green light to several amendments centered on the wolf and basically return the species to the situation in which it was before 2021when It was added to the list of wild species in special protection regime (Lespres), What in practice vetoed his hunt north of the Duero, something that already happened to the south of the river. To be precise, yesterday the Congress voted Several thingsnot always with the same distribution of support (Junts abstained in an amendment and backed others, for example). The most important points are basically two. The first is A change In the Royal Decree developed by Lespres to eliminate the protection of the populations of wolf north of the Duero, allowing autonomies to decide on their hunt. And the other modification? The second change looks beyond, both in the calendar and territorial level. During the vote of yesterday the Congress He opened the door that the protection of the wolf can also be reduced to the south of the Duero if the legal armor of the wolf is modified at the community level. Maybe it sounds like something distant or abstract, but it is not. The EU has already activated its Administrative machinery To reduce the status of the species now and go from “strictly protected” to “protected.” In December the CE itself He informed that his proposal had brought the support of the Permanent Committee of the Bern Convention. And once that initial obstacle has not surpassed, it has not taken long in get to work To retouch the habitat directive. How have they achieved it? In Spain the wolf has been starring in political chronicles for some time. That is not new. In April 2024 the Congress already gave A first step In the same direction so that the species cease to be untouchable. The really curious thing about yesterday’s movement, beyond the bottom, is the form. How it has been done. The PP took advantage of the new Loss prevention law and food waste to incorporate its amendment on wolf hunting during the previous process in the Senate. The turn is so curious that it has even caught the attention of The international pressalthough the popular amendment has managed to connect both issues: the food waste and the legal status of the wolf. Its main argument is that with their attacks on sheep and cows directly affect the sector, generating tons of waste. “They suppose an impact on the generation of livestock foods of four million kilos of meat, since there were more than 14,000 dead cattle between calves, cows, foals and sheep,” collect the amendment. Before even the vote in Congress, the Association for the Defense and Study of the Iberian Wolf (ASCEL) already labeled “offensive” and “abuse of power” that the legal status of the wolf is addressed in a law dedicated to waste. Have there been reactions? Yes. In every way. For the PP the objective is “End the nightmare” that thousands of farmers live. The minister for ecological transition, Sara Aagesen, sees it differently and He warned Wednesday that lowering the protection of the wolf in Spain would be a “precipitated, reckless” movement and “contrary to science.” Outside the political arc, the measure has generated different reactions. Yesterday the Royal Spanish Hunting Federation (RFEC) celebrated A decision that, in his opinion, will help “the conservation” of the species and its “coexistence” with livestock. In another release Much harder environmentalist in action spoke of “hate” and “killing”, and warned: the amendment “turns its back on science.” What do the figures say? Recently Juan Carlos Blanco, an expert in the species, explained to The country that right now in Spain there are between 330 and 340 herds of wolves, which would result in some 2,300 animals. The vast majority (95%) are distributed in areas affected by the normative change endorsed by Congress, in Castilla y León, Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria. The Ministry for Ecological Transition warned These days that you are collecting data precisely to advance in its “responsible management.” If the wolf has sneaked into the political debate, both Spanish and European, it is for another aspect: its impact on rural and livestock. Just a year ago The PP warned that communities such as Cantabria or Galicia are giving “subsidies for the protection of their livestock” because “there are 35 attacks on average.” Moreover, he estimated that since the wolf had legally armored the number of lost animals exceeded the million. Now, once the new modification was published in the BOE, it will be the autonomies that will determine how many wolves may be hunt. Images | AR Higher School of Environment (Flickr) and Rjime31 (Flickr) In Xataka | You … Read more

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