While it seems like something out of House Stark in “Game of Thrones,” these dire wolves are real — living and breathing and roaming an American nature facility over 10,000 years after their extinction.
That’s right: Dire wolves have risen from the dead thanks to Colossal Laboratories & Biosciences, a genetic engineering company that feels like it took a step out of “Jurassic Park.”
Three pups have been born since late 2024, including boys Remus and Romulus: the six-month-old, 80-pound dire wolves are almost 4-feet-long in length already, according to TIME.
The third pup, a girl aptly named Khaleesi, is just two-months-old.
By the time they reach adulthood, the wolves are anticipated to be six-feet-long and weigh about 150 pounds.
These wolves have a base genome of a common gray wolf, but their size, mannerisms, white fur, golden eyes, vocalism, and stature comes from “20 edits in 14 genes.” Those edits to a common gray wolf’s genome came from DNA extracted from two dire wolf bones found in Ohio and Idaho: One being 72,000 years old, TIME divulged.
The wolves are not playful dogs that seek human touch and companionship — like their ancestors and other wolves, they avoid people.
“Even one of the handlers who raised them from birth can get only so close before Romulus and Remus flinch and retreat,” TIME explained.
Colossal is seeking to mitigate the sixth mass extinction event in addition to bringing back other famous extinct animals through their de-extinction process.
Their progress in reanimating the woolly mammoth was announced by the creation of woolly mice: Mice with some attributes of woolly mammoths. They are continuing to pursue the recreation of woolly mammoths, in addition to dodo birds and thylacines (better known as the Tasmanian tiger), their website details.
The company is seeking to also help severely endangered species like the red wolf — for which less than 20 exist today.
