What if All the Extinct Animals Could Return to Life?

Let’s explore the consequences of all extinct animals returning to life.

What if one day, while taking a stroll down the street, you come across entirely new, odd animals instead of just your typical canine and feline companions?

At first, it’s hard to accept what you’re seeing. It can seem like you’re daydreaming. Even the birds in the skies are remarkable, and neither you nor anyone else can identify them because you have never seen them. You are genuinely perplexed by this circumstance.

You finally go home and turn on the news channel on the television. Even the news networks are flooded with stories of unusual animals and birds that people from various locations have seen.

The truth about them is ultimately revealed by the news stations, which say that these animals and birds actually went extinct decades or even centuries ago and have ever since reemerged. An interview with many scientists is also broadcast. The scientists announced that they have finally developed the technologies necessary to bring all extinct creatures and birds back to life, regardless of how long ago they became extinct.

Because of this, animals like the Dodo bird, woolly mammoths, saber-tooth tigers, and even dinosaurs would once again inhabit our globe.

How would it feel to coexist with these creatures? What effects would their resurrection have on the environment and the planet? Do they affect our daily lives? How would we live as humans on a planet like that if the scenario mentioned above were to come true one day? How is this feasible, then?

What effects would it have on us, other creatures, and birds living on this planet? Would it benefit us in any way or harm our environment and planet? Let’s look for answers to each of these queries.

How Is This Even Imaginable?

Scientists are now much closer to reviving extinct species thanks to technological advancements. De-extinction, a procedure, is used to achieve this. With this procedure, scientists can use the remnants of ancient creatures and, via genome editing, merge the DNA of those animals’ extinct species with that of their close relatives.

When a species went extinct millions of years ago, it was impossible to bring it back to life. With the help of this method, we could eventually revive extinct species. However, only a small number of animals and birds whose DNA is still recognizable can be brought back to life if scientists utilize this procedure to bring extinct creatures back to life. Among them are dinosaurs.

But suppose science has advanced to the point where it can contemplate reviving those species with identifiable DNA. In that case, we may anticipate that it will also be able to do the same for species with unidentifiable DNA in a few thousand years. Thus, we can even anticipate the return of dinosaurs.

How These Species Went Extinct

Human activities are to blame for the extinction of many species. Natural factors like climate change, a shrinking food supply, and even competition from other creatures have led to the extinction of many species. Mass extinctions have also been caused by catastrophic occurrences, such as the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs. But very quickly, humans took the lead in driving many species extinct.

Many of these species became extinct due to modernization because they could not adapt to the changing climate, atmosphere, and modern people’s way of life. Numerous species need large tracts of forest land to survive, but due to deforestation and the loss of their means of subsistence, many species have gone extinct over time.

Indiscriminate hunting of some the animals, like the woolly mammoths, whose primary cause of extinction is hunting of their populations in large numbers by humans. But now, thanks to science and technology, humans, who once brought about the extinction of many species, are reviving them.

What Would Happen to the Earth if These Birds and Animals Returned?

It includes many stunning and distinctive species, such as the Carolina parakeet, which became extinct due to excessive hunting for its colorful skin. The Earth would be very different if these creatures and birds were again present. All of the natural world’s inhabitants would return.

Other species, such as the Lord Howe Gerygone and passenger pigeons, called rainbirds, would also return. These are but a few instances. There will be a huge increase in the number of birds flying in the sky. Additionally, we could observe various distinctive birds flying in the sky.

We would be able to obtain flightless species like the Giant Moa and the Elephant Bird, which are known for their enormous size. The Dodo bird, Great Auk birds, and many other similar birds will return, enriching our ecology.

The Tasmanian Tiger, Caspian Tiger, Wooly Mammoth, Woolly Rhinoceros, Saber-Toothed Cat, and many other species would return to life if possible. Some of these creatures would be naturally predatory, making it very challenging for humans to maintain control over them.

For these animals and birds to thrive, they must also tend to their various needs. The zoos, wildlife sanctuaries, and national parks would develop into entertainment hubs. These locations need to expand their areas to make room for these new birds and animals. They would also need to prepare for the unexpected audience that would gather to witness these animals and birds.

People may now witness these creatures and birds in the wild rather than having to visit museums to learn about them. All of their fictional worlds would become true. These zoos, wildlife sanctuaries, and national parks are now a haven for historians, biologists, zoologists, archaeologists, and anyone interested in researching these species.

The animals to be brought back would not only be terrestrial animals and birds, but they would also include aquatic animals making aquatic life richer in diversity.

What Would Be The Consequences?

Both positive and negative consequences would bring these birds and animals back from extinction.

Positive Impacts

It is possible to save all critically endangered species that are also extremely important to humanity. The return of these extinct creatures and birds will first cause great delight among the populace. Science would advance to a completely new level and be able to produce more cutting-edge discoveries as a result of the continued study of these extinct animals.

The de-extinction technique can potentially end the issue of threatened species. We could help all those extremely important species to nature and humanity to return.

Adverse Impacts

We should only use the technology used to bring these animals and birds back from extinction sparingly. We should only do it for educational purposes or extremely infrequently for enjoyment. It could disrupt the entire ecosystem if these species reproduce in great numbers. When these birds and animals arrived, it was unclear if humans would continue to be at the top of the food chain.

These birds and animals may disrupt the entire ecosystem. They may even kill existing animals and birds in large numbers, posing a major threat to such species. These birds and animals may even contribute to the further extinction of several flora and animals for various reasons.

First, they can become the consumers of the birds and animals that are food for other birds and animals. The introduction of these animals would cause havoc throughout the entire food chain. Second, only a finite number of species can exist in nature in a world where survival of the fittest is the rule. The weaker species would eventually go extinct since they couldn’t compete with the stronger ones.

However, many birds and animals that are extinct today are strong, powerful, and dangerous. They can easily compete with today’s birds and animals, killing them in large numbers and ruling the world again.

Third, these extinct birds and animals seriously threaten the population of humans. These creatures are exceedingly impossible to tame. Some of the extinct birds and animals were so terrible that they had to go extinct for humans to survive.

These hazardous birds and animals even can wipe out the human population if, even by a little mistake, they are left out. They are capable of eradicating our entire civilization in a matter of days.

Finally, due to climate change, these birds and animals would no longer be able to thrive in the modern environment and would go extinct. Therefore, reviving these species would have terrible ramifications for humanity and other plants and animals. It would be disastrous for the entire world and its environment to bring them back.

However, there are additional justifications for not reviving these birds and animals. Humans would not hesitate to exploit these creatures, birds, and even those species currently being conserved to avert extinction if they became aware that such technologies could easily bring the extinct animals back to life.

They would continue to slaughter animals and birds in large numbers and begin trading indiscriminately in products derived from them, such as leather, wool, and the teeth of some animals. It would be done to maximize their profits because once extinct, we could bring these animals and birds back to life with the aid of technology.

It would further contribute to our planet’s unethical, greedy, and chaotic nature, where animals and birds are first mercilessly slaughtered for a profit before being technologically revived.

Would There Be Political Repercussions?

We can initially anticipate a competition amongst nations to acquire the tools to save these birds and creatures from extinction. It would be the case, in particular, for nations where specific species that were once unique and endemic have since gone extinct. Reintroducing these species would benefit these nations since more people would travel there to witness these birds and animals, increasing their economies.

It would be crucial to bringing these birds and animals for other economic reasons. The nations that have created the technologies to bring these animals and birds back would also profit greatly from trading them for their skin, teeth, meat, and other byproducts.

There is a chance that we could apply these technologies to warfare as well. To disrupt the ecosystem and population of a competitor nation, a nation with advanced technologies will attempt to release the predatory animals that have been brought back from extinction on its rival’s territory.

The competing nation that might not have known about these technologies or might have known about them but wasn’t able to independently develop them for its use would undoubtedly be at a disadvantage.

Additionally, nations that cannot create these technologies on their own would be prepared to pay whatever price is necessary to get them from those nations that have.

Thus, we can conclude that developing the tools necessary to save all birds and animals from extinction will alter global political dynamics.

Conclusion

Approximately 8 million species have existed on Earth since its inception, with 99.9 percent becoming extinct. Some of these species benefit humans and the environment, and bringing them back would be a great advantage. Bringing these species back will positively and negatively impact our planet and humanity.

This technological innovation would permanently solve the issue of endangered species. However, it is impossible to disregard the drawbacks of reintroducing these species. Wealthy and powerful nations would use these technologies to enslave the less developed nations further to further their goals.

Controlling the predatory species would also be challenging. The re-emergence of these birds and animals could disturb the ecosystem as a whole. With the resurgence of these species, it would also be unclear whether humans would remain at the top of the food chain.

Finally, it is still unclear how long these birds and animals will be able to survive in a world where climate change and global warming have become the norm.