US company aims to resurrect bluebuck antelope that was hunted to extinction

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) – The bluebuck, an antelope with silvery slate-blue fur and striking horns, lived in the coastal grasslands of South Africa’s southwestern Cape region until European settlers hunted it to extinction around 1800. Now a US company plans to resurrect the bluebuck as part of efforts to prevent it from extinction.

Dallas-based Colossal Biosciences announced Thursday that it has made the bluebuck the sixth species in its genetic engineering-based extinction prevention portfolio, along with three other mammals (the dire wolf, the woolly mammoth and the thylacine, also called the Tasmanian tiger) and two birds (the dodo and moa).

“We are two years into the Bluebuck project and have already completed several key steps,” Colossal CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm told Reuters. he said. “We’re equally excited about how our technology can help antelope living today. About a third of the world’s approximately 90 antelope species are threatened or near threatened.”

Prized for the unique color of their skin, bluebucks were hunted to extinction just 34 years after the species was first scientifically documented. The animal was about four feet tall at the shoulder; Its black horns, curved and ringed backwards, reached about 22 inches (56.5 cm) in length and were smaller than their close relatives, the swallow and sable antelope.

“Humans did this. European settlers shot the bluebuck off the Cape in less than 34 years. There is no ambiguity as to motive, and there is no ambiguity as to responsibility. If we have the capacity to right this wrong, I think we have an obligation to do so,” Lamm said.

In April 2025, the company announced the birth of three genetically modified wolf pups created with the help of ancient DNA extracted from the fossilized remains of dire wolves, an Ice Age predator that went extinct about 13,000 years ago. The process used to create them involved editing the genes of the gray wolf, the extinct species’ closest living relative, adding dire wolf traits and creating an embryo.

In the case of the bluebuck, Colossal is editing the genes of its closest living relative, an African antelope called the tern.

“We are currently in the genome editing phase where we are introducing key bluebuck edits and genes into red antelope cells,” Lamm said. “Once we have completed the various edits, the next step will be to use the edited cells to create an embryo and progress toward implantation. From there, gestation will last approximately nine months.”

The plan is to transfer the embryo to a surrogate mother. Through cloning, embryos were created from gray wolf cells edited in the dire wolf project and these were transplanted into domesticated surrogate dog mothers.

A MUSEUM EXAMPLE

The company mainly used bluebuck skin mounted from a young male specimen at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm to obtain bluebuck DNA, Lamm said.

Lamm said that the team compared the genomes of bluebuck and roan to understand what makes bluebuck unique, and stated that the two species are more than 98% similar genomically. Lamm said the team created pluripotent stem cells – essentially versatile ‘starter cells’ that can develop into many different cell types – in the spotted wildebeest.

“We have also made breakthroughs in breeding methods, including the successful collection of eggs from antelope species using advanced techniques,” Lamm said.

Although an increasing number of species are being driven into oblivion due to human activities, including hunting and habitat destruction, scientists are debating the ethics of attempting to resurrect extinct species.

“Honestly, I think the debate sometimes functions as a way to avoid a harsher debate, which means that conservation as currently implemented is not winning. We are losing species faster than our current toolset can address,” Lamm said.

Colossal called the wolves he created dire wolves and referred to this species as the world’s first animal to be successfully “extinct.” Some outside experts have described them as genetically modified gray wolves.

“The dire wolves are doing great,” Lamm said.

“The three dire wolves live in a large secure ecological preserve of 2,000 acres (810 hectares), which allows us to monitor and manage them while providing them with a semi-wild habitat in which they can thrive. We hope to have more dire wolf cubs by the end of the year. We will also have scientific progress announcements on the mammoth, dodo, thylacine and moa before the end of the year, but Lamm said, “The projects are all on track.”

(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Daniel Wallis)