(CNN) — Almost 100 years after its extinction, the Tasmanian tiger may live once again. Scientists want to resurrect the striped carnivorous marsupial, officially known as a thylacine, which roamed the Australian bush. The ambitious project will harness advances in genetics, ancient DNA retrieval and artificial reproduction to bring back the animal. “We would strongly advocate that first and foremost we need to protect our biodiversity from further extinctions, but unfortunately we are not seeing a slowing down in species loss,” said Andrew Pask, who is leading the initiative. About the size of a coyote, the thylacine disappeared about 2,000 years ago virtually everywhere except the Australian island of Tasmania.

Source: CNN August 16, 2022 21:46 UTC