A bird that humans had hunted to extinction over a hundred years ago will once again be seen flying the open sky.
Revive & Restore, a San Francisco based nonprofit founded by scientists dedicated to species "de extinction," has announced it intends to use genetic engineering technologies to synthetically create new specimens of the long extinct passenger pigeon, according to the Associated Press.
The passenger pigeon was once one of the most numerous on Earth in the 1800s, reaching a global population of five billion at its peak. This means that at the time there was more passenger pigeons on the planet than there were people.
The population declined as humans hunted and killed the birds for food. The bird's reputation for flying in large group formations made it easy for hunters to kill the birds, according to AP.
By 1914, the entire species was killed off.
"Here was a bird like the robin that everybody knew and within a generation or two it was gone - and we were its cause," said Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm said, according to AP.
The Smithsonian Institution kept the last passenger pigeon preserved ever since she passed as a historical relic. It removed the specimen from storage this week to be put on display as a reminder to the public about how they have the ability to change the natural world for the worse.
The exhibit will commence on June 24, and will also include a backdrop of history about passenger pigeons.
There are some geneticists that are hoping to bring the bird back however.
"Nobody ever dreamed that a bird that common could be brought into extinction that quickly," said University of Minnesota evolutionary biologist Bob Zink, according to AP.
Revive & Restore has collected samples of DNA from preserved passenger pigeon cadavers like the one found at the Smithsonian.
The nonprofit organization hopes to put the DNA to use in order to create brand-new living passenger pigeons in the lab. Research would include breeding a number of band tailed pigeons, a close relative of the passenger pigeon, and making slight changes to their DNA.
They would likely be able to turn them into passenger pigeons by transferring passenger pigeon genes into the band tailed pigeon's genomes.
A return date for the passenger pigeon has not been outlined by the organization.
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