Would you like to see the Tasmanian Tiger or thylacine returned from extinction? 👍👎🤷 | ABC Australia

On National Threatened Species Day* we're asking you to decide: should Australia Tasmanian Tiger or thylacine be returned from extinction?

This is not science fiction, and it’s not just an academic exercise.

Professor Andrew Pask says it’s possible for scientists to bring the thylacine back into existence within a decade.

Professor Pask, leader of the Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research Lab at Melbourne University, says the lab is in collaboration with Colossal Biosciences.

They plan to edit the genome of a related species – the dunnart – to resemble the thylacine’s DNA, then use another relative as a surrogate to gestate the reincarnated baby thylacines.

In February the ABC invited audiences to participate in a poll asking: are you in favour, opposed or on the fence about the resurrection? We also asked what questions people had for experts.

In August we published the results or that poll, and Professor Pask answered some of your questions about plans to de-extinct Australia's only marsupial apex predator.

Overwhelmingly, respondents favoured its return (see link to the original article below), with just 8 per cent on the fence and 24 per cent against de-extinction of thyalcines.

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Produced by Lucille Cutting and edited by Anthony Scully.

Please note: On most of our videos, the captions/subtitles are auto-generated by YouTube.

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Survey call out

Audience survey response

* More about National Threatened Species Day

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