The Dire Wolf Returns

Mom used to say… Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. I hope the “scientists” take Mom’s advice to heart.

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Greetings & welcome, John!

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@John1658: Welcome to the “Pack!”

:wink:

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Their main diet was actually horses. Sloth, mastodon, bison, and camel were less common prey.

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Some updated info. via TIME magazine:

"The Return of the Dire Wolf

Romulus and Remus are doing what puppies do: chasing, tussling, nipping, nuzzling. But there’s something very un-puppylike about the snowy white 6-month olds—their size, for starters. At their young age they already measure nearly 4 ft. long, tip the scales at 80 lb., and could grow to 6 ft. and 150 lb. Then there’s their behavior: the angelic exuberance puppies exhibit in the presence of humans—trotting up for hugs, belly rubs, kisses—is completely absent. They keep their distance, retreating if a person approaches. Even one of the handlers who raised them from birth can get only so close before Romulus and Remus flinch and retreat. This isn’t domestic canine behavior, this is wild lupine behavior: the pups are wolves. Not only that, they’re dire wolves—which means they have cause to be lonely."

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Camel sounds gross.

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Reminds me of a mini documentary of someone who raised dogs and wolves at the same time. At some point, they had to let go of the wolves upon realizing they won’t be domesticated.

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Stock up on swiffers

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@Enzo_T: I had a similar thought. If they could train the “Dire Wolf” to be a K9; can you imagine the “alleged” criminal getting hit by 150lbs. moving 25 MPH? OY!

The thought makes me smile. :grin:

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The dire wolf hasn’t “returned”. It hasn’t even been “brought back from extinction”. Some smarty-pants eggheads got together and manufactured something the kinda, sorta, squint-hard-enough LOOKS like a dire wolf. They’ve probably been watching too much “Game of Thrones”.

Another point: Is there actually a desperate need for the dire wolf in today’s biosphere? Is the natural world suffering a shortage of canine apex predators, which can only be solved by cobbling together a franken-wolf? Inquiring minds want to know…

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Has it returned from extinction?

No, this is a hybrid.

Will this hybrid be larger than the modern grey wolf that donated some of the missing genome?

Maybe :man_shrugging: they’re still basically puppies aren’t they? Only like 1-2 years old?

Apparently their bone structure is divergent from grey wolves enough to make them appear more like the fossil record….

So hybrid yes, but still cool. :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

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Just so it doesn’t become a Jurassic Park nightmare like Africanized Killer Bees because someone wanted a more “aggressive” bee. :honeybee:

Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it in spades :spade_suit:!

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Remember: It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.

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Oh, what cute puppies!

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I agree, they’re beautiful

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Always like their descendants.

We have had as string of German Sheppards, Siberia Huskies, and mixes of both. Great dogs all.

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They look hungry…to me!

:thinking:

:rolling_on_the_floor_laughing:

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To you or For you?

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