Researchers could save elephant from extinction by giving them woolly mammoth genes

Scientists want to combine woolly mammoth genes with that of an elephant to help elephants cope better with colder temperatures and hopefully help them avoid extinction.

Harvard University researchers claimed they have “resurrected” 44 genes from the woolly mammoth which they would use to create the hybrid elephants.

"My goal is not to bring back the mammoth, it's to bring back mammoth genes and show that they work and that we have already done it," lead researcher Professor George Church said, CNET reports.

But it wouldn’t be as simple as implanting an embryo of the hybrid within an adult female elephant.

Church said his team would need to grow the embryo “in vitro in the lab”.

"We have one paper coming out which is a general method where we can turn stem cells into any tissue you want, and in this case we want decidua, which is the tissue into which the embryos implant, and we're trying to make a vacularised version of that,” he said.

But don’t expect this to happen tomorrow – the scientists believe they’ll start small to begin with, using a mouse embryo first before moving onto larger mammals.