A Texas-based biotechnology company is working to bring back an extinct African antelope species that disappeared more than 200 years ago due to hunting by European colonists.
Colossal Biosciences, headquartered in Dallas, revealed Thursday that the bluebuck antelope has become the sixth extinct species in their revival program. The distinctive animal, which featured a silvery slate-blue coat and curved horns, once roamed South Africa’s southwestern Cape region before being completely eliminated around 1800.
“We’re two years into the bluebuck project and have already completed several foundational steps,” company CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm explained to Reuters. “We are equally excited about how our technology can help living antelopes today. About a third of the world’s roughly 90 antelope species are threatened or near-threatened.”
The bluebuck measured approximately four feet tall at the shoulder and possessed distinctive backward-curving black horns that extended roughly 22 inches in length. Hunters valued the animals for their uniquely colored pelts, driving them to extinction within just 34 years of their initial scientific documentation.
“Humans did this. European settlers shot the bluebuck out of the Cape in under 34 years. There’s no ambiguity about the cause and there’s no ambiguity about the responsibility. If we have the capability to right that wrong, I think we have an obligation to,” Lamm stated.
The company’s approach involves modifying genetic material from the roan antelope, which shares more than 98% of its genome with the extinct bluebuck. Scientists are currently in the gene-editing phase, introducing bluebuck characteristics into roan antelope cells.
“We are now in the genome-editing phase, where we introduce key bluebuck edits and genes into roan antelope cells,” Lamm explained. “After finishing the various edits, the next step will be to use the edited cells to create an embryo and move toward implantation. From there, gestation would take about nine months.”
Researchers obtained bluebuck DNA primarily from a preserved specimen housed at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. The team has successfully developed pluripotent stem cells from roan antelopes, which Lamm described as “essentially versatile ‘starter cells’ that can become many different cell types.”
“We’ve also made breakthroughs in reproductive methods, including successfully collecting eggs from antelope species using advanced techniques,” he added.
Colossal’s portfolio includes five other extinct species: the dire wolf, woolly mammoth, thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), dodo, and moa. In April 2025, the company announced the birth of three genetically engineered wolf pups created using ancient DNA from dire wolf fossils.
“The dire wolves are doing great,” Lamm reported. “The three dire wolves live on a 2,000-acre secure, expansive ecological preserve that allows us to monitor and manage them while providing them a semi-wild habitat to thrive in. We hope to have more dire wolf pups by the end of the year.”
While some scientists debate the ethics of species resurrection, Lamm argues that traditional conservation methods are insufficient for the current extinction crisis.
“Honestly, I think the debate sometimes functions as a way to avoid a harder conversation, which is that conservation as currently practiced is not winning. We are losing species faster than our existing toolkit can address,” he said.
The company expects to announce scientific progress on their mammoth, dodo, thylacine, and moa projects before the end of the year.
