It has been 226 years since humans last saw a living bluebuck, an elegant antelope species native to South Africa that was driven to extinction by European hunters. Now, Colossal Biosciences the company that successfully de-extincted the dire wolf last year has announced it will attempt to resurrect the bluebuck using advanced gene-editing technology.
The bluebuck was a striking animal, standing about four feet tall at the shoulder and stretching up to ten feet from nose to rump. It possessed long, sharp, backward-curving horns measuring around 22 inches, a white belly, a brown face, and a distinctive silvery-gray-blue coat that shimmered across its body. When running at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour, it appeared like a streak of pale blue sky moving across the landscape.
European colonists began hunting the bluebuck intensively shortly after arriving in South Africa in the mid-1600s. Prized for its unique pelt, the species was wiped out in roughly 150 years, with the last individuals disappearing around 1800. Today, the bluebuck exists only in historical drawings and a handful of preserved specimens in natural history museums.
Colossal Biosciences revealed the new de-extinction project on Thursday, adding the bluebuck to its growing list of target species that already includes the woolly mammoth, dodo, Tasmanian tiger, moa, and the recently revived dire wolf.
“African antelopes have long been neglected in global conservation,” said Beth Shapiro, Chief Science Officer at Colossal Biosciences. “The bluebuck de-extinction project changes that. We’re bringing back a species that played a vital role in its ecosystem and building the scientific foundation for antelope conservation before more of its relatives are lost.”
The project will use the company’s proven gene-editing approach. Researchers have already sequenced the genome of the extinct bluebuck using a tissue sample from the Swedish Museum of Natural History and compared it with the genome of its closest living relative, the roan antelope. While the two species differ by about 3 percent of their DNA — roughly 18 million sequence variants — Colossal’s team has narrowed the critical differences down to approximately 20,000 key functional regions that define the bluebuck’s appearance and physical traits.
Scientists will edit the DNA of roan antelope cells to incorporate these bluebuck-specific traits. The edited nucleus will then be inserted into an enucleated roan egg cell, which will be developed into an embryo and implanted into a roan surrogate mother. After a gestation period of about 278 days, the surrogate is expected to give birth to a bluebuck calf.
In addition to the de-extinction work, Colossal has successfully reprogrammed adult roan cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). This breakthrough will allow researchers to test genetic edits on different tissue types without experimenting on live animals, an important advancement for conservation efforts involving rare species.
Of the world’s 90 antelope species, 55 are experiencing population declines and 29 are currently threatened with extinction. Colossal hopes the technologies developed for the bluebuck project will also help strengthen genetic diversity in surviving antelope populations.
Company CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm stressed that bringing the species back is only part of the challenge. “The other half is making sure the world is ready to protect it when it returns,” he said. Colossal is partnering with the nonprofit Advanced Conservation Strategies to identify suitable habitats and navigate regulatory requirements for eventual reintroduction in southern Africa.
The first bluebuck calves are expected to be born in secure enclosures, similar to the three dire wolf pups currently living in a protected 2,000-acre habitat. Long-term, the goal is to establish viable wild populations across appropriate landscapes in southern Africa.
