Hindustan Times ^ | May 15, 2005
Australian researchers are reviving a project to bring an extinct animal known as the Tasmanian tiger back from the dead through cloning.
Three months after the Australian Museum shelved plans to clone the tiger -- also known as a thylacine -- a group of universities and a research institute are planning to revive the project, the Sun-Herald newspaper reported.
Mike Archer, dean of science at the University of New South Wales, was quoted as saying that researchers from NSW and Victoria states were likely to join the programme, which involves recovering DNA from a pup preserved in 1866 to breed a living specimen.
"A group of institutions is involved in moving ahead with creating new ways of getting the thylacine project back on track," he was quoted as saying, adding he would like his own university involved.
The Tasmanian tiger, a dog-like creature christened for its striped pelt, was hunted into extinction because it was seen as a threat to livestock.
The last known specimen died in Hobart zoo in 1936 but there have been thousands of unconfirmed sightings since then.
When the museum abandoned its own cloning bid, it said the quality of the DNA had been too degraded to work with.
