Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about ‘Endlings’, the Bizarre Beasts’ (BB) not-a-spin-off, instead. This episode’s topic – the passenger pigeon.
Some time ago, BB produced a promoting video of this
event, where two women, Ms. Suta and Ms. Green, painted/colored a bunch of
small plastic pigeon models and discussed the passenger pigeon’s Wikipedia
article. It was not quite a scam, but it felt almost like one. This time, it is
different – a completely new narrator, (and of a male gender too) discussed the
passenger pigeon, why it died out and if it can be brought back.
…No, Colossal Biosciences (CB) are not behind it;
this time, it is a different company, who claims that it will bring the
passenger pigeon back, (in a manner of speaking) by 2032. Right now, it is
October 2025. This means, that the company (Let’s call it RR), puts a ‘time
stamp’ on its’ rewilding project – in 6 slash 7 years, few people can remember
about RRs’ promise to bring the passenger pigeon back if RR chooses to go for
the obscure approach… Interesting, and kind of suspicious.
The actual process of ‘bringing back the passenger
pigeon’ is not too different from how CB plans to bring back the giant moa: CB
plans to accomplish their project by combining the DNA of the emu and one of
the tinamou species, while RR plans to combine the DNA of the passenger pigeon
(it can be recovered, apparently), with that of its’ closest relative – the
band-tailed pigeon – and inject the combo into the rock pigeon’s eggs…
As we discussed in the past, a tinamou-emu hybrid do
not make a moa, especially a giant one. As for the pigeons,
the passenger pigeon was a part of the Columbinae
subfamily, the typical pigeons and doves in layperson’s terms, but it had its’
own genus and kept to itself; since at its’ peak the passenger pigeon numbered
in millions, this was easy.
The band-tailed pigeon, meanwhile, belongs to the
American pigeon genus that consists of 17 species, all of which are more
closely related to each other than to the other birds, so what makes the
band-tailed pigeon so special in regards to the passenger pigeon? The video
does not tell us.
This brings us back to the passenger pigeon. It
stood out from the rest of its’ pigeon and dove cousins by, well, the obvious.
It lived and bred in bulk. It fed in bulk. It was usually in motion, looking
for new food sources, (mostly grains, nuts, fruits, and the like). It was much
more aerodynamic than many other pigeons – and it did not seek human cities to
live in, unlike some other pigeons and doves. Pause.
…You take – intentionally or unintentionally – those
features away, and the result is not
a passenger pigeon, but some other bird. Pause.
There is no indication that RR intends to do this,
but their process has the passenger pigeon DNA combined with the band-tailed
pigeon’s, and perhaps the rock dove’s as well. There is no indication that the
passenger pigeon’s DNA will be dominant, but if it will be…
…If the passenger pigeon DNA will be dominant, then
the new bird will try to live like the extinct passenger pigeon did, which
includes breeding and living in bulk. Will the 2030s North America be able to
sustain this kind of population? Probably not without some massive landscape
rewilding. Will the American society and government be willing to do this sort
of massive landscape rewilding instead of building new urban centres? Probably
not. And without large tracts of wild North American woodland, the new
passenger pigeon will die out again, that’s the bottom line, unless…
…Unless it is being recreated not for rewilding
purposes but for commercial ones, in which case the enthusiasm and the support
for RR’s passenger pigeon project will drop. Listen, pigeons may not be as
thoroughly domesticated as ducks and chickens, but they are domesticated and bred – for good looks, for mail carrier
service, and for flesh and feathers too; we do not need another pigeon
species/breed/GMO in the mix.
Let us pause and take a deep breath. The RR
passenger pigeon project comes with options. It may work and we will have the
new passenger pigeon – but we will not be ready for it and it will die out. It
may sort of work, and will have a new genetically modified pigeon, which may
act like the passenger pigeon, or not, for both the band-tailed and the rock
pigeons belong to different genera than the passenger pigeon did, and both act –
and look, and are built – differently from the passenger pigeon. Alternatively,
the RR project will just fizzle out in the next 6-7 years, and we will have no
new pigeon for our troubles.
Sigh. The narrator at ‘Endlings’ himself was rather
sceptical of the passenger pigeon project; he tried his best to sell it to the
audience, but he couldn’t fully do it. (The fact that he knew that most of us would
forget about this video by the end of the week probably played a role too). The
details of successfully bringing the
passenger pigeon back to the U.S. are too many and he did not appear to have
all of the answers – RR did not give it to him. Stop.
So, in conclusion. CB’s rewilding projects are exuberant
and showy, but they do put CB into the spotlight, and CB cannot weasel out of
this too easily. RR’s approach, on the other hand, allows them to do exactly
that, and it is not an improvement over CB’s approach, sadly… Looks like the rewilding projects/concepts/etc.
in the West are in for some bad times…
Well, this is it for now. See you all soon!
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