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The Dire Wolf Is Back

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Re: The Dire Wolf Is Back

#71

Post by silexia »

tokonoma wrote: post #49
silexia wrote: post #36

Farmer here. The return of the regular wolf has been a tragedy of historic proportions. Wolves slaughter tons of livestock for fun. Farmers are not allowed to protect their herds at all. What will a dire wolf do to livestock if we bring them back? So dumb.

A recent study in Germany concluded that permanent electric fences are an effective long-term solution for protecting livestock from predators. granted - the upfront cost is significant. In regions where the wolf population has returned. Rather than placing blame on the wolves, there is a need for policy change that allows for coexistence where the return of wolf to the ecosystem offers ecological benefits. These pol…

Most of these studies are done by politically motivated people with zero connection to the real world. I have permanent electric fences all over my property and wolves and coyotes and deer easily jump over them. Unless a farmer is willing to spend so much money he goes bankrupt on a 10' fence with tons of welded wire, the wolves come through.

Re: The Dire Wolf Is Back

#72

Post by vrosas »

ashenke wrote: post #53

> "He explained that I was looking at a plan for a restored ecosystem. It was also a perfectly adapted money machine. There was a large area where the ancient elephants could graze, and this would be funded, in part, by carbon-offset payments from governments and corporations. The carbon value of a single elephant is about two million dollars, he told me. (An elephant increases biodiversity, in part, by spreading see…

The real prize is the technology and techniques to do this sort of stuff. CRISPR is a fascinating technology that we're just now seeing the benefits of[0]

0 - https://www.labiotech.eu/in-depth/crispr-technology-cure-dis...

Re: The Dire Wolf Is Back

#73

Post by silexia »

gambiting wrote: post #40
silexia wrote: post #36

Farmer here. The return of the regular wolf has been a tragedy of historic proportions. Wolves slaughter tons of livestock for fun. Farmers are not allowed to protect their herds at all. What will a dire wolf do to livestock if we bring them back? So dumb.

Where is this? In US the deer herds have grown so much out of control that they are worse than biblical locust - they trample and eat everything they find because there is no natural control of their numbers, until they eat everything they can find and starve. At least in theory wolves are meant to thin out their numbers. >>hat will a dire wolf do to livestock if we bring them back? Is a dire wolf any worse than regu…

Hunters are happy to take all the deer that they are legally allowed to. This is the fault of poor government management of hunting.

Do some actual research on wolves. They will kill a dozen cows in a day in a pen and not eat any of it.

Re: The Dire Wolf Is Back

#74

Post by jdminhbg »

johnecheck wrote: post #34

Here's[0] a recent editorial about Colossal, the company behind this. Basically, they make some flimsy claims about conservation and combating climate change to justify creating a poor imitation of Jurassic Park. Naturally, there's some real moral dilemmas that they gloss over in pursuit of the money a few wealthy people will pay to be able to say "I saw a Mammoth!" [0]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/04/editor…

Wealthy people, huh? Well now I’m against it!

Re: The Dire Wolf Is Back

#75

Post by prescriptivist »

johnecheck wrote: post #68
vrosas wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mammoth is the big PR project but Colossal is working on a number of species, and the idea is the research will enable us to easily "de-extinct" or prop up the population of any number of species if and when they're in danger.

Any number of species ? Maybe in theory, but propping up an entire ecosystem in collapse is well beyond Colossal's reach and incentives. This money and research would be better spent preventing the ecosystems from collapsing in the first place. If we fix climate change, I could see an argument for investing in restoring the ecosystems that were destroyed. But 'de-extincting' a species without addressing the root caus…

> Realizing this, these types will give up on re-introducing the original organism and instead create a bioengineered version that can survive in the changed world. I fear this path will not end well for us.

Developing and injecting genetic resiliency into existing populations isn't the worst thing in the world. Additionally adding animals that can only reproduce sterile offspring would be an amazing tool for dealing with invasives. That kind of practical work very easily follows from this R&D.

Re: The Dire Wolf Is Back

#76

Post by qoez »

johnecheck wrote: post #34

Here's[0] a recent editorial about Colossal, the company behind this. Basically, they make some flimsy claims about conservation and combating climate change to justify creating a poor imitation of Jurassic Park. Naturally, there's some real moral dilemmas that they gloss over in pursuit of the money a few wealthy people will pay to be able to say "I saw a Mammoth!" [0]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/04/editor…

The main lesson from 90s movies is that we must build the torment nexus

Re: The Dire Wolf Is Back

#77

Post by lightedman »

freedomben wrote: post #37
githubholobeat wrote: post #25

There is an article about this in Time magazine, no paywall. https://time.com/7274542/colossal-dire-wolf/

Thanks, that's a terrific article

Its a horrible article. Grey wolves and dire wolves arent even genetically related in a way that allows for this sort of gene editing and we have known this for a few years now. If anything, a dire wolf is closer to a red wolf.

Re: The Dire Wolf Is Back

#78

Post by lukan »

lolinder wrote: post #63
MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll perhaps visit them at the zoo.

Oh, good, so when that happens they'll be making some flimsy claims about conservation and combating climate change to justify creating a poor imitation of Jurassic Park that wealthy and middle class people can visit.

True philantropists it seems.

(Never mind, that they never conserved anything)

Re: The Dire Wolf Is Back

#79

Post by renewiltord »

johnecheck wrote: post #64
leesec wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would a zoo or something just be for wealthy people

Investors expect returns on the hundreds of millions of dollars they've invested. At best, it'll be a very expensive zoo.

In fact, Apple has invested so much money in the iPhone. The only way they can make it work is if they sell the iPhone only to billionaires. Yes, just like Disney. The cost of Disneyland and Disneyworld mean that the only way it could provide a return is if the only people who can attend are the very wealthy. I think my model of the world is very good. It accurately describes things.

Re: The Dire Wolf Is Back

#80

Post by altairprime »

MisterTea wrote: post #3

Paywalled so I have to ask, why the dire wolf? Why not an animal that humans drove to extinction like the dodo bird? Is it because dire wolves sound cool and were in video games?

Because Game of Thrones popularized the idea of a dire wolf as an exceedingly rare protector of children, which helps them persuade investors that there is a viable luxury market for this product. They named one “Khaleesi”, so it’s not a coincidental reference.
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