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What “bringing back” an extinct species actually means
In conservation discussions, de-extinction usually refers to creating a proxy organism with some resemblance to an extinct species. A proxy may not behave, reproduce, or interact with other organisms as the historical species did. Its genetics, development and rearing conditions can all affect how it performs in a present-day ecosystem.
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The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) treats the environmental release of such a proxy as a conservation translocation: an attempt to establish a population in suitable habitat for conservation benefit. Its 2016 guiding principles and 2013 translocation guidelines emphasize that both benefits and harms are uncertain and should be assessed before release.
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Unpredictable effects on living species and ecosystem functions
A proxy could affect other species or ecosystem functions in ways that are difficult to forecast. Its interactions may differ from those of the extinct animal, and a novel combination of organisms and conditions can produce unexpected effects. An ecological role that sounds beneficial in theory is not proof that the proxy will deliver it safely in practice.
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Invasion or pest behavior
A released population might establish, spread beyond the intended area, or cause damage. That outcome is a possibility to assess, not an automatic consequence of de-extinction. Before release, decision-makers need to consider whether the population could be controlled and whether it could be stopped or reversed if harm became unacceptable.
Disease transmission and biosecurity
No translocated organism can be assumed to be entirely free of microorganisms or parasites. Disease assessment should begin during planning and weigh both the likelihood of a pathogen and the severity of its consequences for wildlife, livestock, and people.
Hybridization with living relatives
A proxy could breed with a closely related living species or subspecies. Hybridization could affect the fitness or genetic integrity of the living population, or change its ecological properties. The possibility is especially relevant when related species occur at or near the proposed release site.
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Habitat mismatch and environmental change
A release site may no longer provide the food, conditions, or ecological partners the proxy needs. The older the extinction, the harder it may be to know whether present-day habitat resembles the conditions in which the extinct species lived. Assessments should also account for long-term environmental change, including climate change.
Population failure or re-extinction
Even after release, a population might fail because of unsuitable habitat, unfamiliar pathogens, unexpected interactions with other species, conflict with people, missing or abnormal behavior, or physiological impairments. A population could die out again after substantial human intervention.
Conflict with communities and effects on livelihoods
Possible impacts include livestock predation, crop damage, disease, effects on harvested species, changes to ecosystem services, and harm to cultural values. These effects can provoke opposition or conflict, undermining the conservation effort itself. IUCN’s 2021 rewilding brief highlights the importance of community engagement, monitoring, and adaptive management.
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How should decision-makers weigh a proposed release?
IUCN’s starting point is that creating and releasing a proxy is not conservation-neutral, even under ideal conditions. Proponents should define a conservation goal and establish in advance why the release is expected to benefit conservation—for example, by improving ecosystem stability or resilience, or reducing losses in other species.
They should also compare the proposal with both a suitable living ecological substitute and the option of making no release. A living substitute may achieve the ecological goal more quickly, predictably, and with less cost or risk. De-extinction is harder to justify if an existing species can deliver the intended function more safely.
| Decision factor | Questions to assess |
|---|---|
| Conservation outcome | What effect is expected on biodiversity, ecosystem stability or resilience, and losses in other species? |
| Ecological fit and predictability | Is suitable habitat available now? What is known about the proxy’s behavior, ecological role, and likely interactions? |
| Risk and reversibility | What are the disease, invasion, and hybridization risks? Can the population be controlled or a release reversed? |
| Time, cost, and feasibility | Could a living substitute achieve the goal sooner or with less cost or risk? |
| People and governance | How might the release affect livelihoods and cultural values? Are consent, monitoring, and response capacity in place? |
What safeguards should come before release?
- Define the conservation objective. State the expected benefit and how success will be judged before creating or releasing a proxy.
- Compare alternatives. Evaluate a living ecological substitute and no release against the same conservation goal, including their risks and feasibility.
- Assess the candidate and the site. Examine the proxy’s likely population performance, behavior, and ecological role; habitat suitability; invasive potential; generation time; human-wildlife conflict; and the possibility of hybridization or disease.
- Make uncertainty and long-term change explicit. Consider how genetic and developmental factors, rearing conditions, interactions with other organisms, and changing environmental conditions could affect outcomes.
- Involve affected communities early. IUCN calls for prior informed consent from local communities and particular effort to obtain prior approvals from Indigenous peoples.
- Plan monitoring and an exit strategy. Decide how effects will be tracked after release and what action will be taken if harm becomes unacceptable. Monitoring is only useful if there is capacity to respond.
IUCN’s 2016 guiding principles state: “There should be a priori positive justification for engaging in proxy species creation based on the expectation of a positive conservation benefit, i.e. increasing ecosystem stability and resilience, and/or reducing losses in other species.” These principles guide conservation decisions; they do not replace the laws or permits applicable at a particular release site.
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What the available figures do—and do not—tell us
IUCN reports that biological invasions caused a minimum economic cost of USD 1.288 trillion from 1970–2017, attributing the underlying publication to Diagne et al. (2021). It also reported in 2022 that invasive alien species threaten 1 in 10 species on the IUCN Red List. These figures describe invasive species broadly; they are not estimates of the likelihood or impact of a de-extinction release becoming invasive.
No de-extinction-specific risk percentage or global impact statistic is established in the cited sources. A release’s risk depends on the particular proxy, place, present-day ecosystem, and ability to monitor and control the population.
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