Some plans to recreate that flightless bird,
or woolly mammoth, using bioscience,
a feat that seems at first view quite absurd
have met with cheers or sceptical defiance.
The dodo is, some say, the poster child
of humans driving species to their ends.
But now, as genome data is compiled,
biotechnology could make amends?
De-extinction's still a fairy tale,
or suspect as a media invention.
But men are really swallowed by a whale,
and octopi have minds that show retention.
If in a pigeon's egg, one of these days,
Rare DNA performs a recall job
there still remains a question ripe to raise.
Who'll teach its dodo-ness to such a squab?
The ecosystem which will take them back
needs much repair, before this latest fuss.
Rewilding skills are something we still lack,
when future species reassemble us.
