Could the Dodo Be Brought Back? De-Extinction Explained

What is de-extinction?

De-extinction means using genetics and reproductive technology to produce animals that resemble an extinct species. There are three main approaches. Back-breeding selects living animals for ancestral traits, as with cattle bred to look like the extinct aurochs. Cloning copies an animal from preserved living cells, which only works for recently extinct animals with frozen tissue. Gene editing changes the DNA of a living relative so that it carries some of the extinct species’ genes.

For the dodo, only gene editing is possible. The last dodos died in the 17th century, long before anyone could freeze cells, and the remains that survive are old bones and a dried head and foot.

The dodo genome and the Colossal project

The first step is to know the dodo’s DNA. Ancient DNA breaks into tiny fragments over time, but scientists can piece them together using a close relative’s genome as a guide. In 2022, a team led by paleogeneticist Beth Shapiro reported that it had sequenced a complete dodo genome from a museum specimen. Shapiro had also led the 2002 study that first confirmed the dodo was a pigeon, using DNA from the Oxford specimen.

In January 2023, the US biotechnology company Colossal Biosciences, which also runs projects on the woolly mammoth and the thylacine, announced a dodo program led by Shapiro, who later became its chief science officer. Later that year it began working with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation on restoring native habitat and removing invasive species on Mauritius, the dodo’s only home.

How would scientists try to make a dodo?

The plan relies on the Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica), a glossy green-and-gray bird of islands in Southeast Asia and the western Pacific that DNA studies identify as the dodo’s closest living relative. The steps would be roughly as follows.

1. Compare genomes. Find the key differences between dodo and Nicobar pigeon DNA, especially genes linked to size, flightlessness, beak shape and plumage.
2. Edit germ cells. Birds cannot be cloned the way mammals can, because a bird egg is too large and complex to manipulate in the same way. Instead, scientists would edit primordial germ cells, the early cells that later become sperm and eggs.
3. Use surrogate birds. The edited germ cells would be placed into the embryos of a host bird, which would grow up producing sperm or eggs carrying the edited DNA. Mating such birds could produce chicks with the edited genome.

In September 2025, Colossal announced that it had found a way to grow pigeon primordial germ cells in the laboratory, using the rock pigeon, the wild ancestor of city pigeons, as its test species. Before that, the method had only worked reliably in chickens and a few other poultry birds.

What are the biggest hurdles?

Size. A Nicobar pigeon weighs about 0.5 kg (1.1 lb), while wild dodos weighed roughly 10–18 kg (22–39 lb). A dodo chick would need a much larger egg than any pigeon can lay, so the project would have to rely on a different, larger host bird, an approach that has never been tested for such a big change.

Many genetic differences. The dodo and the Nicobar pigeon lineages split millions of years ago, so their genomes differ in a very large number of places. Editing enough of them to recreate a dodo’s body is far beyond anything achieved in birds so far.

Behavior and learning. Even a bird with the right genes would have no dodo parents to learn from. Nothing is known about how dodos courted, called or raised their young, so any new birds would have to work this out for themselves.

A suitable home. Mauritius has lost most of its original forest, and the pigs, macaques and rats that helped destroy the dodo are still there. A new population would need large, protected areas free of these threats, which is why habitat restoration is part of the plan.

Would it really be a dodo?

Many scientists say no. A bird built by editing a Nicobar pigeon would be a new kind of animal with some dodo features, sometimes called a proxy. The IUCN’s 2016 guidelines on de-extinction use exactly this term, describing such animals as proxies of extinct species rather than the species itself.

Supporters argue that a large, fruit-eating ground bird could help restore Mauritius’s forests by spreading the seeds of native trees, a job the dodo probably once did. They also point out that the same techniques could help living species. Colossal has said its work could support the genetic rescue of the pink pigeon, a threatened Mauritian member of the pigeon family that survived after falling to about ten wild birds around 1990.

Critics worry that the costs could be better spent protecting species that still exist, and that the promise of de-extinction might make extinction seem less permanent. Others raise animal welfare concerns about producing birds through untested methods.

Will we ever see a dodo again?

Nobody can give a reliable date. Some key steps have been taken, such as sequencing the genome and culturing pigeon germ cells, but producing a healthy, breeding population of dodo-like birds would require several breakthroughs that have not yet happened. For now, the best way to understand the dodo is through its bones, its history and its closest relatives. Read why it disappeared in Why did the dodo go extinct? and how it fits into the pigeon family in Was the dodo a pigeon?