Listen to howls of dire wolf pup brought back from extinction after 10,000 years
The first two dire wolf pups, Remus and Romulus, were born in October using DNA extracted from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old ear bone. A third pup, named Khalessi, was born earlier this year and is now 3 months old.
Hear the first dire wolves brought back from extinction
Biotech company Colossal Biosciences has birthed three dire wolf pups, a species that has not walked on Earth for more than 10,000 years. This video shows highlights of their first six months.
Last fall, the dire wolf population jumped off the pages of folklore, returning from extinction. This week, Colossal Biosciences, the biotechnology company behind the births of the previously extinct wolves, revealed the first howls of dire wolves in 10,000 years.
Colossal Biosciences said the first dire wolf pups were born on Oct. 1, 2024, using the CRISPR gene-editing technology and DNA extracted from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old ear bone. Domestic dogs served as surrogates for the embryos. The two pups, named Remus and Romulus, are now about six months old and weigh around 80 pounds.
A third pup, named Khalessi, was born earlier this year and is now 3 months old.
One of the first dire wolf pups in 10,000 years.
(Christopher Klee (Colossal Biosciences))
The dire wolf pups were named after characters in the famed "Game of Thrones" books and show. All the Stark children had dire wolves, which might be the only way most people know about this long-lost species.
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For the first time, the world can hear the sounds of real, living dire wolves who are no longer fictional characters in a story. The video at the top of this story shows highlights from the wolves' first six months on Earth.
![The two dire wolf pups at about six months.]()
Image 1 of 4The two dire wolf pups at about six months. (Christopher Klee (Colossal Biosciences))
![The first two dire wolf pups.]()
Image 2 of 4The first two dire wolf pups. (Christopher Klee (Colossal Biosciences))
![One of the first dire wolf pups in 10,000 years.]()
Image 3 of 4One of the first dire wolf pups in 10,000 years. (Christopher Klee (Colossal Biosciences))
![A dire wolf pup at about six months.]()
Image 4 of 4A dire wolf pup at about six months. (Christopher Klee (Colossal Biosciences))
The wolves live on a 2,000-acre preserve certified by the American Humane Society and registered with USDA, with a dedicated animal care staff.
Colossal is also using blood-cloning technology in an attempt to save red wolves, a critically endangered species. The company said it has successfully birthed two litters of cloned red wolves.
"Preserving, expanding, and testing genetic diversity should be done well before important endangered animal species like the red wolf are lost," Harvard geneticist and co-founder of Colossal Dr. George Church said in a news release. "The dire wolf is an early example of this, including the largest number of precise genomic edits in a healthy vertebrate so far. A capability that is growing exponentially."
Colossal Biosciences' biggest project is attempting to bring back the woolly mammoth from extinction. Although the goal of bringing these giant, cold-resistant relatives of elephants back is not to feed the dire wolves, mammoths were the dire wolves' main food source more than 13,000 years ago.