A deal has been signed to resurrect the dodo.
The Mauritian Wildlife Foundation has signed a deal with an American biotech firm, Colossal Biotechnology, to bring the bird back from the dead.
The dodo was a flightless bird, indigenous to Mauritius, which stood about 1m tall. It was hunted to extinction by European sailors and others after Europeans regularly began visiting the island in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The last confirmed sighting of a dodo was in 1662.
The dodo is a symbol of Mauritius and appears on the country’s coat of arms and currency.
The BBC quoted Vikash Tatayah of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation as saying: ‘The dodo, a bird intimately woven in the DNA of Mauritius, is also sadly iconic for the role mankind played in its extinction. It also symbolizes efforts to prevent species extinctions. We are so grateful for Colossal’s technologies and the promise to return this iconic species, extinct since the 1680s, to its native environment.’