{"id":68003,"date":"2025-08-14T16:03:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T16:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/68003\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T16:03:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T16:03:16","slug":"colossal-biosciences-female-dire-wolf-meets-her-brothers-for-first-time-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/68003\/","title":{"rendered":"Colossal Biosciences\u2019 female \u2018dire wolf\u2019 meets her brothers for first time – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colossal Biosciences brought its three \u201cdire wolves<\/a>\u201d together for a playdate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In April, the biology research company announced the birth<\/a> of the wolves after using DNA extracted from two fossils as well as 20 edits of the genetic code of a grey wolf \u2014 similar to a technique used in the movie\u00a0Jurassic Park, where dinosaurs are brought back to life by using frog DNA to fill in genetic gaps.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, they brought the two males, Romulus and Remus, together in one habitat with the one female, Khaleesi, to watch them meet for the first time during separate interactions.<\/p>\n

In a video shared to the company\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>, Khaleesi met her brothers individually, beginning with an introduction to Romulus.<\/p>\n

Romulus was brought into a grass yard before Khaleesi entered and ran towards a stack of logs, crawling under while her brother began chasing her.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEverybody was showing great behaviours and ended up being comfortable,\u201d a Colossal handler explained in the video. \u201cShe smelled him and he smelled her. Then she took off running and he, of course, ran with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said Khaleesi is small enough to go underneath the logs but Romulus is larger. This helped the female wolf control the interaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything was going great and we wanted to make sure she got a chance to meet Remus today so we went ahead and shifted Romulus back in and we let Remus out,\u201d the trainer added. \u201cThey were both excited. Everybody was so good and played but Remus is almost more gentle than Romulus.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As they observed the wolves, they said the siblings were showing \u201clots of play behaviours\u201d and kept their ears up and wagged their tails during their first interaction.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we really see her being in control and confident and she might be a little bit bigger, then we\u2019ll decide when the best time is to put them all three together again and see how that goes,\u201d the handler said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe care a lot about these animals and we want to make sure that nobody gets injured, no one is scared. All of those processes and thoughts and needs are being addressed and the team is constantly reassessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi are being raised in an undisclosed nature preserve and Colossal has 10 full-time animal care staff to support the wolves\u2019 physical and mental well-being.<\/p>\n

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The preserve where the trio lives is on 2,000-plus acres enclosed by 10-foot-tall, zoo-grade fencing with redundant perimeter security. The wolves are monitored through on-site live camera, security personnel and drone tracking to ensure their safety and welfare.<\/p>\n

The preserve also includes a smaller, six-acre secure site where the wolves can be further tended to and studied. The smaller area also supports an on-site veterinary clinic, a wolf management facility, an outdoor storm shelter and natural-built dens for the wolves.<\/p>\n

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While dire wolves had previously been extinct for more than 12,500 years, many experts claim that Colossal Biosciences\u2019 creation is considered to be genetically modified grey wolves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose slight modifications seemed to have been derived from retrieved dire wolf material. Does that make it a dire wolf? No,\u201d Corey Bradshaw, professor of global ecology at Flinders University, previously told Global News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen you claim all these great, big things and you don\u2019t provide the associated evidence, especially in something as controversial as this, that is a massive red flag.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:55
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Living clickbait\u2019: Experts dispute dire wolf de-extinction claim\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Dolf DeJong, Toronto Zoo CEO, told Global National<\/a> that the news of the so-called dire wolves was a case of \u201cliving clickbait.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that it was \u201crich multimillionaires creating animal GMOs for self-interest\u201d and called the creation \u201creally, really troubling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Filmmaker Peter Jackson and\u00a0Game of Thrones\u00a0creator George R.R. Martin collaborated with Colossal for the reveal of the wolves in April by lending the company the official 330-pound Iron Throne prop that was used to promote the hit series,\u00a0Game of Thrones.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people view dire wolves as mythical creatures that only exist in a fantasy world, but in reality, they have a rich history of contributing to the American ecosystem,\u201d Martin said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cI get the luxury to write about magic, but Ben and Colossal have created magic by bringing these majestic beasts back to our world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colossal Biosciences brought its three \u201cdire wolves\u201d together for a playdate. In April, the biology research company announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,53972,128,313,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-68003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-dire-wolf","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-trending","13":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}