#6 // dire wolves

ive been thinking about this literally since i went to bed last night and i need to rant a bit.

everyone and their mfing mom has already talked about how dire wolves are not actually "de-exinct," but i've been seeing the craziest takes (mostly on tiktok, unsurprisingly). one that really made my blood boil was something about how the funding of de-extinction processes is taking away from funding towards research for women's health? like are we being fucking serious right now??? those are completely different fields of study, first of all. zoologists are not going to be studying endometriosis. secondly, they aren't actually taking away funding for projects/studies like that.... because they are privately funded...... which is why this whole dire wolf situation has become so sensationalized. it has to be, so these scientists can continue to bring in funding. the ultimate goal here is not actually to bring back prehistoric creatures, because not only is that silly in itself but these animals have been extinct for so long they don't have any ecological niches to fill. recently extinct animals---like the red wolf---do, though, as their elimination from the environment has impacts that are still being felt. 

contrary to what seems to be popular belief, this is not meant to be the endmost solution to animal conservation, though it may be of benefit to some extent. that is, again, something that needs to be worked on in a completely different field of science: environmental science. the biggest threat to animal populations are habitats declining and climate change.

and, just to note, in the interview with these scientists about the "de-extinct" dire wolves, they claim that grey wolves are the closest common ancestor, which i take issue with as literally all of the most recent studies post to the contrary. they claim, however, to have created their own paper to debunk this current fact, but to my understanding have yet to release it, which seems awfully dubious. regardless, at the end of the day these are not dire wolves; they are grey wolves genetically modified to have the likeness of dire wolves. this entire project is acting as a "proof of concept" for future de-extinction projects involving the recently extinct.