A US biotech company says it is now trying to bring South Africa’s extinct bluebuck back from the dead, a move that has immediately reignited debate about the limits of science, conservation and human responsibility. Colossal Biosciences, based in Dallas, has added the bluebuck to its growing de-extinction programme, placing the long-lost Cape antelope alongside high-profile targets such as the dire wolf, woolly mammoth, thylacine and dodo.
For South Africans, the story carries a particular sting. The bluebuck once roamed the coastal grasslands of the south-western Cape before being hunted to extinction around 1800, only decades after it was formally documented. The animal’s disappearance is one of the earliest recorded extinction cases tied directly to European settlement in what is now South Africa, and that historical backdrop is now being pulled back into the spotlight by modern genetic engineering.
Colossal says the project is already well under way. Company CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm said the team has spent two years on the bluebuck effort and has already completed what he described as several foundational steps. According to Lamm, the company is now moving into the genome-editing phase, using the bluebuck’s closest living relative, the roan antelope, as the biological starting point.
The company’s pitch is simple, even if the science is anything but: identify the key traits that made the bluebuck unique, edit those into roan cells, create an embryo and, eventually, implant it into a surrogate. If successful, the process would mirror the approach Colossal used in its much-publicised dire wolf experiment, which relied on ancient DNA recovered from fossil remains.
The bluebuck itself was a striking animal. It had a silvery slate-blue coat, distinctive horns that curved backwards, and stood about 1.2 metres tall at the shoulder. It was smaller than the better-known roan and sable antelopes, but prized for the colour of its hide — a fact that helped seal its fate. Historical accounts suggest the species was wiped out in just 34 years after scientific description, a collapse that is now being framed by Colossal as a case study in human-driven extinction.
Bluebuck de-extinction project moves into genome editing phase
Lamm has been blunt about the company’s moral framing. In his view, the bluebuck was not merely lost to time, but erased by people who knew exactly what they were doing. He argues that if science now has the tools to repair that damage, then there is an obligation to try. That language will sound familiar to anyone following the fast-moving de-extinction debate, where ambition often collides with questions about ethics, conservation priorities and whether recreated animals can ever truly restore what was lost.
Colossal says it relied heavily on a mounted bluebuck skin from a young male specimen held at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm to obtain DNA. By comparing the bluebuck genome with that of the roan, the researchers say they have been able to identify the genetic differences that made the extinct antelope distinct. Lamm claims the two species are more than 98% genomically similar, which is why the roan is considered the best candidate for the work.
The company also says it has created pluripotent stem cells in the roan antelope. In practical terms, those are highly flexible “starter cells” that can be directed into different cell types. Colossal says that gives its scientists a more workable platform for editing and reproductive experimentation, including what Lamm described as advances in collecting eggs from antelope species using specialised techniques.
As we reported earlier in coverage of Colossal’s other projects, the company has made a habit of presenting each breakthrough as proof that de-extinction is moving from theory to pipeline. In April 2025, it announced the birth of three genetically engineered wolf pups created using ancient DNA from dire wolf remains. That project used the gray wolf — the closest living relative of the extinct predator — as the template, with edits inserted to recreate key dire wolf traits.
The bluebuck effort follows a similar logic. Instead of trying to rebuild an extinct species from scratch, Colossal is taking a living relative and layering in the genetic features it believes will produce an animal that closely resembles the original. That distinction matters, because many scientists argue that such animals are not literal resurrections, but rather engineered proxies shaped by modern biotechnology.
Colossal has brushed off some of that criticism. Lamm says the public debate can sometimes distract from what he sees as the bigger picture: species are disappearing faster than conservation systems can protect them. He argues that existing tools are not keeping up with biodiversity loss, especially in a world where habitat destruction, hunting and climate stress continue to push animals towards the brink.
Not everyone agrees with the company’s framing, of course. Critics have long questioned whether de-extinction projects divert money, expertise and public attention from saving living species. That concern is especially relevant in Africa, where many antelope species are already under pressure from land loss, fencing, poaching and climate change. Lamm himself acknowledged that roughly one-third of the world’s 90 antelope species are either threatened or near-threatened.
There is also the practical question of what happens after a lab-born bluebuck. Colossal says an edited embryo would be implanted into a surrogate roan mother, with gestation expected to take about nine months. But creating an animal in the lab is not the same as rebuilding a self-sustaining population in the wild. Habitat, predators, disease, behaviour and ecosystem fit all remain unresolved challenges.
That point matters in the South African context. The bluebuck lived in a specific ecological niche in the Cape, and the landscapes that once supported it have changed dramatically over more than two centuries. Even if a genetically engineered version of the species were produced, questions would remain about where it would live, how it would be managed and whether there is any realistic pathway to releasing such an animal into the wild.
For now, Colossal says the project is moving ahead and that more scientific updates are expected across its broader de-extinction programme later this year. The company has also claimed the three dire wolves are doing well on a 2 000-acre secure ecological reserve, where they are being monitored in a semi-wild environment. It says further progress announcements are due on the mammoth, dodo, thylacine and moa projects before year-end.
Whatever one thinks of de-extinction, the return of the bluebuck to the global conversation is a reminder of how deeply South Africa’s natural history still resonates. A species once erased from the Cape by human hands is now being held up as a test case for a new kind of biotechnology — one that promises not just to preserve life, but to rewrite the ending.