You've probably seen the news in the past couple weeks about some biologists talking seriously about "de-extincting" the Passenger Pigeon. The idea is to take DNA from museum specimens of the birds - nearly a century gone now - and inject them into Band-tailed Pigeon stem cells, eventually resulting in birds that are nearly pure Passengers.
Despite the scientific salaciousness, though, many birders seem to think that this ain't the best of ideas. One of them is mega-birder, ABA blogger and owner of probably the best-researched birding blog on the innernet, Rick Wright, who posted on his Facebook page that this Passenger Pigeon hoopla was nothing more than "short-sighted gimmickry."
One of these nay-saying birders is NOT, however, me, who loves the idea of our skies once again darkened with Passenger Pigeons - and any other long-dead feathered friends we can reconstitute. I got in touch with Rick and he kindly agreed to swap emails discussing the practical and moral implications of bringing back the birds. I had a blast, and I thank Rick for hashing it out with me. Find our exchanges below the jump.
