The US government is partnering with Texas-based extinction company Colossal Biosciences to create a national repository of genetic material from endangered and threatened species. The effort comes as the Trump administration tries to weaken protections for endangered species, including a recent decision to stop expanding offshore oil and gas drilling.
In collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, scientists aim to collect cells, reproductive tissue, and DNA from more than 2,300 species of plants and animals in the US and around the world that are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Samples will be cryopreserved and stored at the Colossal lab in Dallas, with duplicate samples distributed across the country.
The company, which last year said it had created dire wolf pups, will perform genetic sequencing on the samples and make the information available to researchers and conservationists. Under the partnership, the federal government will own the samples.
“We want to back up as many species samples as we can,” said Colossal CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm.
Colossal provides collection kits so our partners in the field can take blood, skin, and other tissue samples. Lamm says the collection has already begun.
“This collaboration brings together the scientific expertise of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the ingenuity of the private sector to develop new tools that can help restore species, conserve valuable genetic resources, and strengthen the future of wildlife conservation,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. (Fish and Wildlife, part of the Department of the Interior, did not respond to a request for more information about the partnership.)
In theory, the samples could be used to save a species from the brink of extinction. Fish and Wildlife did this when they cloned the black-footed ferret—one of North America’s most endangered mammals—using cryopreserved cells from a ferret that died in the 1980s. Announced in 2021, it was the first time a US endangered species was created. The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Frozen Zoo provided a sample of that work.
Under the Trump administration, Fish and Wildlife has proposed major changes to the 1973 Endangered Species Act that would roll back protections for endangered plants and animals. These proposed changes would affect the economic and national security considerations in determining a protected environment and eliminate the “common law” that automatically gives endangered species the same strong protection as those at risk.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump called the so-called God Squad—a group of senior administration officials including Burgum—to examine whether they could pass protections for endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico. The group, which has met several times since the creation of the Endangered Species Act, decided to grant exemptions to oil and gas exploration in the region. (Environmentalists sued the administration for this decision.)
Noah Greenwald, director of endangered species at the Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona-based nonprofit, says Colossal’s new plan is consistent with the administration’s stance on conservation, in part because it doesn’t conflict with industry interests.
“This is not the conservation of biodiversity,” he said. “This is like a last-ditch effort. We will only need these genes if management fails to restore endangered species.”
The Center for Biological Diversity has been critical of proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act. Greenwald says conservation efforts should focus on protecting public areas such as national parks and wilderness areas to prevent animal loss. Even if it is possible to bring back extinct or endangered animals with technology, he says, there needs to be a habitat to be able to support those animals.
