Daily TribuneFor the first time in 10,000 years, dire wolves walk the Earth again—thanks to science, surrogates, and a wild dream of de-extinction.
Romulus, one of the world’s first cloned dire wolves, at five months old—10,000 years after his species vanished.
Photo by Robert Clark for TIME
They may look like oversized pups, but Romulus and Remus are no ordinary animals. Born last October through cutting-edge cloning and gene-editing technology, they are the first dire wolves to live in over 10,000 years—a feat pulled off by Colossal Biosciences, a Texas-based startup with even grander ambitions, including reviving woolly mammoths and the extinct Tasmanian tiger.
As reported by Jeffrey Kluger in Time magazine, the birth of these pups is more than just a scientific first. It’s a symbolic step in the bold and often controversial realm of de-extinction—a movement that dares to ask if we can right the ecological wrongs of the past by bringing back species long vanished from the Earth.
The pups were born via surrogate hound mothers and raised under tight monitoring at a secluded 2,000-acre preserve, where they now roam, howl, and hunt as only wild creatures do. From the start, their behavior has been unmistakably lupine—cautious, quiet, and alert to the world around them. Unlike dogs, they shun human touch, even from the handlers who bottle-fed them from infancy. “From day one they have always behaved like wolves,” said Colossal’s animal husbandry manager Paige McNickle.
But what makes Romulus and Remus even more extraordinary is what they represent. This is not a Jurassic Park fantasy. It’s real, living science with implications far beyond spectacle. Colossal hopes its technologies—refined through projects like the dire wolf—can help rescue endangered species too, such as the red wolf, whose dwindling numbers in the wild reflect the damage human activity has inflicted on the natural world.
Already, Colossal has cloned four red wolves using similar genetic techniques, and even produced a genetically altered mouse with mammoth traits—a warm-up act, they say, for a real woolly mammoth calf by 2028. But with every breakthrough comes debate. Scientists and ethicists warn of the risks: cloning errors, ethical gray areas, and the unintended consequences of reintroducing engineered species into ecosystems that have long since moved on.
Still, Kluger’s piece in Time captures the wonder behind the science. One especially moving moment came when the pups were only a few weeks old and a veterinary technician sang a lullaby. As she hit a high note and slid down the scale, the pups responded—not with barking, but with howling. A sound the Earth hadn’t heard since the Ice Age.
Whether or not dire wolves ever roam the wild again, Romulus and Remus offer a glimpse into what’s possible—and perhaps, what’s necessary—in an age where extinction is accelerating. Kluger’s full feature explores these questions with depth, heart, and caution, inviting readers to wonder: If we have the power to undo the past, what kind of future will we choose to create?
For anyone curious about what it truly means to bring back an Ice Age predator—or what it takes to rewrite the boundaries of life and extinction—Jeffrey Kluger’s full story in Time magazine is a must-read. It’s part science, part philosophy, and entirely fascinating. Don’t miss it.
