The Dire Wolf | Opinion

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Details By Professor Victoria Sutton April 16, 2025

Guest Opinion. The Dire Wolf is said to have become extinct about 10,000 years ago. It was a true North American carnivore, unlike the Eurasian wolf that we have today. Its prey was bison, horses, mastadons, camels, sloths and other extinct animals, which led to its own extinction.

Having written here about creating a dragon, and resurrecting endangered species, it would be hard not to comment on the announcement that a biotech company in Dallas, Colossal Biosciences, has resurrected a dire wolf. I would like to think they found enough DNA from an insect embedded in amber (Jurassic Park plot) to fill in the blanks with modern wolf DNA, but it was really a semblance of the corollary that happened. Modern wolf DNA was the base of the genome, and 14 replacement characteristics were made from a variety or species, none of which was the Dire Wolf. Recoverable DNA from a Dire Wolf was found in two bones — a tooth and an ear bone. They extracted the genome to compare it to the modern wolf.

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The Dire Wolf pups were born on October 1, 2025.

The Dire Wolf puppies are super cute. George R.R. Martin (author of Game of Thrones that had Dire Wolf characters) came out to be part of the announcement, while Peter Jackson, who bought the iron throne, loaned it for the photo op. It was fun.

Not everyone was amused.

The Wolf Conservancy has criticized the claims of Colossal Biosciences for claiming to have resurrected a Dire Wolf which they find to be incorrect; but especially for claiming to be helping with conservation by cloning Red Wolves. Colossal Biosciences also cloned Red Wolves, the most endangered species of wolf in the world. But the spokesperson for the Wolf Conservancy disputes even that claim, saying what they cloned were coyotes. Dr. Hinton, of the Wolf Conservancy said:

The cloned "Red Wolves" are not Red Wolves. They were derived from coyotes captured in southwest Louisiana for the Gulf Coast Canid Project. I know these were coyotes because I served as field supervisor and captured 44 coyotes for the project during 2021-2022.

Dr. Hinton points out that there are 200 Red Wolves in captivity looking for places to go in the wild, and not all of them are suited for release. So cloning Red Wolves (even if they were Red Wolves) would not be helpful to the conservation effort. A solution in search of a problem.

Patenting

It appears that Colossal Biosciences has done something unique and advanced the scientific arts. In August 2024, Colossal Biosciences was issued a patent for a gene editing tool that is an improvement over the CRISPR/Cas-9 editing tool that can change nucleotides in genes to make them produce different enzymes. The purpose in summary, is to do gene editing more precisely and at greater speed. Given the timing of the publication of this patent, they may have used their own patented tool. However, I have not heard the company articulate the details of what tools they used, so I would still speculate that they may have been trying their newly patented tool.

The company has not tried to patent the Dire Wolf, it appears, and that may be a good thing. If they patented it, we would be able to see every genetic engineering step that was taken, and by definition, be able to reproduce the results. Instead, they may be identifying the Dire Wolf as a "trade secret" under Texas state law. Colossal Biosciences has said the Dire Wolves they created will live out their lives on a 2,000 acre preserve. The owner will need to make sure they are monitored and no one seeks to clone one, thereby misappropriating their trade secret. To have a trade secret and defend it under Texas state law, the genome of this Dire Wolf (1) is not generally known or readily ascertainable; (2) derives independent economic value from not being generally known; and (3) is protected by reasonable measures to maintain its secrecy. If I advised Colossal Biosciences on how to protect their invention, this would be my legal tool of choice. (I am not advising Colossal Biosciences, but I do advise other biotech clients.)

Regulation of Genetically Engineering Animals—is this Dire Wolf creation regulated?

If Colossal Biosciences was claiming to cure a wolf disease or alter it to avoid genetic diseases, then they would be required by policy to contact FDA to obtain a letter to allow them to proceed with development. Since this area is not regulated, FDA is gathering data as well as trying to keep aware of this developmental area that is increasingly undertaken in the United States by startups to large companies.

However, like the GloFish(R) the Dire Wolf is an altered animal that is not released into the wild without any claims to cure anything. The Dire Wolf project likely used U.S. tissues that did not require importation and so they were safely within a non-regulated space. I wrote about transgenic animals in this article.

In 2021, Colossal Biosciences announced they were pursuing the "de-extinction" of the mammoth. They have disclosed they intend to obtain elephant DNA or embryos and alter the genome of an elephant with morphological characteristics of the mammoth. This is the same technique used for the Dire Wolf. However, in this case, if they are unable to obtain elephant tissues or extracted DNA from mammoths within the U.S. that will present a regulatory issue requiring a USDA permit for importing the tissues. In this case, I wrote in October 2024, the developer imported embryos and tissue for cloning without a permit resulting in a criminal conviction, not the cloning.

The Lives of the Dire Wolves

Bioethicists talk about the unintended consequences of genetic engineering, which might result in secondary effects that cause pain, injury or death to the animal. Related to that question is what is the quality of life that this animal will have? Leaving two litter mates alone in a preserve for life, may afford them a protected life, but perhaps not a natural one. It is their plan to return them to the wild, and if it is not a government action or funded by the government, it will not require an Environmental Impact Statement, and so no legal assessment of this release would be required. However, the Animal Damage Control Act, permits destruction of predators that cause economic damage — like wolves; however Tribes are exempt for compliance.

In the case of the mammoth de-extinction proposal from Colossal Biosciences, there is a habitat waiting for them that has all the right ecology, in Siberia. Based on George Church's proposal they want to test the hypothesis that when mammoths disappeared, scrub brush began to overgrow on the plains, choking out the grasses. Mammoths cleared out the scrub brush. The de-extincted mammoths are assumed to act like original mammoths, and have an appetite for scrub brush, and thus they can test this hypothesis

Native Nations and the Dire Wolf

Extinction of animals is the extinction of a relative for Native Nations. Not all Native Nations have the same beliefs, but some are well known, like the Lakota who knew their fates were tied to that of the bison. The re-introduction of the bison to the Plains is a sign of life and the restoration of life.

The wolf is part of the Ojibway creation story and so wolves are to be protected.

Today, The Dakotan reported that:

The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) Nation has expressed interest in hosting dire wolves on tribal lands, viewing the effort not only as a groundbreaking scientific collaboration but also as a meaningful act of cultural restoration rooted in ancestral connections and ecological stewardship. According to Colossal Biosciences, discussions with MHA leaders have begun, and tribal representatives have highlighted connections between dire wolves and ancestral oral histories.13

I believe the MHA Nation will be consulting with their Elders in this decision because that kind of wisdom will be needed.

Apex predators being re-introduced to an ecosystem that has evolved for 10,000 years without them, may carry unintended consequences. The large Ice Age prey the Dire Wolf once ate is no longer available, and deer and elk (and horses) will be the closest species to fill that ecological hole for them. They will need to be protected from poachers and if they are "trade secrets" they will need significant protection from theft (misappropriation).

I have confidence that the people whose ancestral stories are intertwined with the Dire Wolf of 10,000 years ago are the best people to accompany it in this world's existence.

To read more articles by Professor Sutton go to: https://profvictoria.substack.com/

Professor Victoria Sutton (Lumbee) is a law professor on the faculty of Texas Tech University. In 2005, Sutton became a founding member of the National Congress of American Indians, Policy Advisory Board to the NCAI Policy Center, positioning the Native American community to act and lead on policy issues affecting Indigenous communities in the United States.