--- title: The Dire Wolf Company's Next Target? A Giant Flightless Bird description: Colossal Biosciences, the company that brought back the dire wolf, is embarking on a new project to bring back New Zealand's moa. canonical: https://time.com/7301013/colossal-biosciences-next-project-extinct-moa/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-07-08T18:41:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:58.345Z article:section: Science og:title: The Dire Wolf Company's Next Target? A Giant Flightless Bird og:description: Colossal Biosciences, the company that brought back the dire wolf, is embarking on a new project. og:url: https://time.com/7301013/colossal-biosciences-next-project-extinct-moa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ccf7808b0ca279f/6998c81f7323af09892bcac2/SouthIsland_GiantMoa.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: SouthIsland_GiantMoa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Dire Wolf Company's Next Target? A Giant Flightless Bird twitter:description: Colossal Biosciences, the company that brought back the dire wolf, is embarking on a new project. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ccf7808b0ca279f/6998c81f7323af09892bcac2/SouthIsland_GiantMoa.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Extinct Moa—a 12-ft. Flightless Bird—May Follow In the Dire Wolf’s Footsteps > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Future Proof: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Future Proof is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Making sense of the climate and energy economy. Future Proof examines the forces transforming energy and climate, and what those changes mean for business, technology, policy and the global economy. Senior correspondent Justin Worland goes beyond traditional climate coverage to connect the energy transition to the bigger decisions reshaping companies, markets and society. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Return of the Dire Wolf [Watch (HLS stream): Return of the Dire Wolf](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bs34qQnK.m3u8) (7:46)  _Published 2025-04-07. Colossal's project to revive the once-extinct dire wolf could also prevent existing but endangered animals from slipping into extinction themselves._  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Jul 8, 2025 6:41 PM UTC  An artist's rendering of a fully grown moa An artist's rendering of a fully grown moa Colossal Biosciences  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Jul 8, 2025 6:41 PM UTC It has taken no end of imagination for Sir Peter Jackson, the Academy Award winning—and, not incidentally, knighted—director of the _Lord of the Rings_ and _Hobbit_ films, to produce [his entire body of cinematic work](https://letterboxd.com/director/peter-jackson/#:~:text=Sir%20Peter%20Robert%20Jackson%2C%20%28born%2031%20October,for%20his%20Lord%20of%20the%20Rings%20film). It’s a quality Jackson has had since he was a small child, when he would conjure up visions of the future. “When I was a kid \[I dreamed of\] personal jet packs and flying cars and things,” Jackson said in a recent conversation with TIME. “One of those other things I always dreamed of was to be able to bring back extinct species.” No-go on the jet packs and the flying cars. But the business of de-extinction? That’s very much happening. In April, the Dallas-based biotech company Colossal Biosciences [announced that](https://time.com/7274542/colossal-dire-wolf/) it had successfully brought back the dire wolf, an animal whose howl had not been heard on Earth since the last member of the species vanished more than 10,000 years ago. Three young dire wolves currently live on a 2,000-acre preserve in an undisclosed location to protect them from the media and curiosity-seekers, and Colossal aims to produce more of the animals, with the ultimate goal of perhaps rewilding the species. **Read more:** [_The Return of the Dire Wolf_](https://time.com/7274542/colossal-dire-wolf/) The company is not stopping there. Colossal also wants to bring back the [dodo](https://colossal.com/dodo/), the [woolly mammoth](https://colossal.com/mammoth/), the Tasmanian tiger—or [thylacine](https://colossal.com/thylacine/)—and more. The goal is both to increase genetic diversity and to hone genetic editing techniques to fortify existing but threatened species. Now, Colossal has announced one more species to add to its growing menagerie: the emu-like [moa](https://colossalstg.wpengine.com/moa/), a giant flightless bird that stood up to 12 ft. (3.6 m) tall, tipped the scales at more than 500 lbs (230 kg), and once ranged across New Zealand, before it was hunted to extinction by humans about 600 years ago. Like the moa, Jackson is a native New Zealander; “I am a very proud kiwi,” he says. He is also a Colossal investor and acted as intermediary and facilitator bringing the company into partnership on the moa project with the [Ngāi Tahu Research Center](https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/research/about-uc-research/research-groups-and-centres/ngai-tahu-research-centre), a group that was founded in 2011 to foster intellectual development and conduct scientific studies for and by the Ngāi Tahu tribe of the Indigenous Māori people. “Some of those iconic species that feature in our tribal mythology, our storytelling, are very near and dear to us,” says Ngāi Tahu archaeologist Kyle Davis, who is working on the moa de-extinction project. “Participation in scientific research, species management, and conservation has been a large part of our activities.” “This is completely a Māori initiative,” adds Ben Lamm, CEO and co-founder of Colossal. “We feel like the Colossal team is an extension of the research center and the Māori.” Bringing back the moa would have implications not only for the species itself but for the environment it once inhabited and could again. The bird was what is known as a cornerstone species, one whose grazing and browsing helped prune and shape the jungle flora. Moas were also prolific dispersers of seeds from the plants they ate. The loss of the species not only eliminated that forest-restoring function, but also led to the related extinction of the Haast’s eagle, which relied almost exclusively on the moa as prey. Restoring the moa would not bring the eagle back but could help at least partly restore the primal New Zealand woodlands. Bringing back the moa is of a piece with Colossal’s other work, which seeks not only to restore vanished species, but to prevent related ones from slipping over the event horizon of extinction. Genetic engineering mastered in the dire wolf project, for example, is being used to edit greater diversity into the genome of the endangered red wolf. Knowledge gained in the effort to bring back the thylacine could similarly help preserve the related [northern quoll](https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/quolls?srsltid=AfmBOopu1LS%5FzR9D4VS83G1Q%5F6xn8ItD2M4C9YbHpsbzdrDoVa96d7Vi). “There are some species of birds on the South Island of New Zealand that are endangered due to the fact that they have reduced gene pools,” says Paul Scofield, senior curator of natural history at Canterbury Museum, author of 20 papers on the moa genome, and one of the scientists working on the de-extinction project. “Some of the technology that Colossal is working with is very applicable to them.” **Read more:** [_Scientists Have Bred Woolly Mice on Their Journey to Bring Back the Mammoth_](https://time.com/7264043/colossal-biosciences-woolly-mouse-bring-back-mammoth/) That technology is decidedly challenging. De-extincting the dire wolf involved sequencing ancient DNA collected from fossil specimens and then rewriting the genome of cells from a gray wolf to resemble the extinct species with the lost ancient genes. The edited nucleus was then inserted into a domestic dog ovum whose own nucleus had been removed. That ovum was allowed to develop into an embryo in the lab and then implanted into the womb of a surrogate domestic dog, which carried the dire wolf pup to term.” Bringing back the extinct moa is harder since the incubating will be done outside the body, inside an egg. The first step in this work once again calls for sequencing the genome of the extinct target species and once again turning to a closely related living species—either the tinamou or the emu—for help. Colossal scientists will extract primordial germ cells—or cells that develop into egg and sperm—from a tinamou or emu embryo and rewrite their genome to match key features of the moa. Those edited cells will then be introduced into another embryonic tinamou or emu inside an egg. If all goes to plan, the cells will travel to the embryo’s gonads, transforming them so that the females produce eggs and the males produce sperm not of the host species but of the moa. The result will be an emu or tinamou that hatches, grows up, mates, and produces eggs containing moa chicks. “We’ve had some pretty big successes so far,” says Lamm. “We have a breeding colony of tinamous but not emus, but have access to emu eggs through the many breeders out there." None of this means that the work is remotely done. Lamm concedes it could be up to ten years before a moa once again walks New Zealand—though it could come sooner. “I’d rather underpromise and overdeliver,” he says. For now, Colossal and the Ngāi Tahu Research Center are still working to sequence the moa genome, and to do that they have to get their hands on more DNA samples. Museum specimens of moa remains satisfy some of that demand, but DNA degrades significantly over the centuries and what can’t be harvested from private collections has to be dug up in field excavations—with a special eye to long, DNA-rich moa bones like the femur and tibia. “There are a couple of really significant fossil sites, particularly one in North Canterbury, about an hour north of Christchurch,” says Scofield. “So far we’ve sampled more than 60 individuals.” If those don’t prove sufficient, he adds, “we will have to go out and dig some more holes.” None of this comes cheap, and while Lamm does not disclose the exact funding for the moa de-extinction project, he does say it is an eight-figure sum. “I saw the new _Jurassic World_ movie and someone in it says it costs $72 million to bring back one animal,” he says. “I was like, ‘That’s probably accurate.’” That up-front expenditure could pay off handsomely down the line, boosting ecotourism to New Zealand and benefiting Colossal’s basic research, which is already showing for-profit potential. So far, Colossal has spun off two new companies: One, called [Breaking](https://www.breaking.com/), uses engineered microbes and enzymes to break down plastic waste. The other, [Form Bio](https://www.formbio.com/), provides AI and computational biology platforms for drug development. But it’s the intangibles—the wonder of midwifing a long-extinct species back to the global family of extant ones—that is Colossal’s and the Māori’s most transcendent work. “This has an excitement value to it that movies don’t have,” says Jackson. “When I see a living moa for the first time I’m going to be absolutely amazed beyond anything I’ve ever felt.” ## Transcript The howl of a dire wolf hasn't been heard on planet Earth for more than 10,000 years. That's because the species is extinct. Or was colossal. Biosciences is a Dallas based company that's using genetic engineering to de-extinct long gone species, and this is the first time colossal's dire wolf pups, who are now six months old, have been seen by the public. Hey, Ben. It's Jeff Kluger from time magazine. Um, a pleasure to meet you. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about what the goal is for de-extinction and rewilding, ultimately. Why are you doing this work? It became abundantly clear that we need new tools and technologies for conservation. And so we thought this was a really cool way that we could create value, create impact, Uh, inspire people and then also hopefully thoughtfully rewild some of these species, which apparently will also have ecological benefits to these different potential ecosystems. To try and do that, colossal needed to understand dire wolves at a genetic level. The company has documented the process from the beginning and shared this footage with time for a cover story. So can you tell me a little bit about what went into engineering the dire wolf? We extracted DNA from two fossils that we knew from previous work had some amount of preserved ancient DNA. One was a 13 000 year old bone, and the other was a 72,000 year old bone, an inner ear bone. We were able to generate two genomes, two dire wolf genome sequences from that which we then compared to all the other wolves for which there's already been data generated. And when we do that, we want to figure out where it is that these two dire wolves are similar to each other, but different from the other wolves that are out there. And so we come up with this list of genes where they're distinct. Now, our goal in the Dire Wolf project, just like with all de-extinction projects, is to re-engineer the core traits, the core characteristics that made these extinct species unique and able to fill whatever role that they filled in their ecosystems when they were still alive. Using this knowledge, colossal then made 20 modifications to 14 genes in the DNA of common gray wolf cells. These relatively few tweaks to the genetic code produced some big differences. The dire wolves white coat, large size, characteristic vocalizations like that howling you heard at the beginning of the story, and more. That DNA was transferred to dinucleotide egg cells, meaning cells without their own genetic material, and then developed into embryos and were then implanted in the wombs of surrogate mothers who were hound mix dogs. We didn't know how big these embryos would grow, and we wanted to make sure that the surrogate was healthy, so we picked large dogs. Romulus and Remus, named after the Roman mythological twin brothers who were raised by a wolf, were born on October 1st, 2024, and in January they were joined by a younger sister that the colossal team named Khaleesi. Each wolf is on track to grow to as large as six feet long and £150. Colossal isn't planning to reintroduce them to the wild. Instead, the three Direwolves will live out their lives on a fenced 2000 acre preserve. Colossal does not want to disclose this location in order to protect the animals. I think these are the luckiest animals ever. They will live their entire life on this protected ecological reserve, where they have all sorts of space and they have natural denning environment, and they have a inclement weather hut that they can go and hide out in if they need to. They have 24 hour veterinary care. Direwolves aren't the only species on Colossal's de-extinction agenda. An American company says it has genetically engineered mice so that they have developed some traits, like mammoths. A small but potentially important step in a quest to eventually bring back the prehistoric woolly mammoth. They hope to de-extinct the woolly mammoth as early as 2028. The company is also hoping to bring back the dodo and the Tasmanian tiger. If some of this genetic tinkering feels familiar, It's because Hollywood has been here first. And spoiler alert we all know that didn't end well. So naturally, bioethicists have some concerns here. When you're playing with nature, uh, nature usually wins. Uh, nature is much more complicated than the ability of our brains to understand it. Genes do many things. There may be a lot of unintended consequences. Let's say we alter a gene to make extra hair or to make it burn metabolism more, to burn fat more. Uh, those genes may do other things in ways that we just don't even understand. So we may create animals that have lots of medical problems. If we start tinkering with genes, we may create a super mouse, a super rat that kills all the other animals around. But the team at colossal says their mission to restore extinct species is also about stopping the disappearance of endangered ones today, as experts predict Earth will lose 30% of its genetic diversity by 2050. Colossal has used techniques learned from the Dire Wolf project to clone four red wolves, a small but important step in fortifying that endangered species. The four new wolves could help inject fresh DNA into the red wolf gene pool, which currently suffers from a so-called genetic bottleneck, the result of too few individuals carrying too little genetic variety to keep the species healthy. Yes, it would be really amazing to see a mammoth. It would be great for the habitats of Tasmania to have a keystone predator reintroduced into that ecosystem. But the tools that we're developing on the path to these species have immediate application to species that are not yet extinct. A future that is both biodiverse and filled with people we should be giving ourselves the opportunity to see what our big brains can do to reverse some of the bad things that we've done to the world already. There's a huge need to help prevent animals from becoming endangered and going extinct. We need to spend more money on conservation, particularly now. There's a lot of threats that lands that we have as national parks, and there's preserves are going to be used for drilling oil, for instance. So there's a lot of habitats where species now live that are going to be under threat. So and there's not enough money to help with conservation efforts. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7301013/colossal-biosciences-next-project-extinct-moa/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7301013/colossal-biosciences-next-project-extinct-moa/"},"headline":"The Extinct Moa—a 12-ft. 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