Throughout his career, acclaimed director Sir Peter Jackson has lifted many of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantastical creations off the page and introduced them to the silver screen through the “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” trilogies
But after years of bringing giant eagles, balrogs, ents and more to audiences around the world, Jackson’s focus has turned to another creature, one that once roamed the earth over 600 years ago: the moa.
Estimated to have stood at 12 feet tall, the moa is widely considered to be the tallest bird that ever lived.
The now-extinct species of flightless birds was once endemic to New Zealand and has long captured Jackson’s imagination as a native Kiwi.
“The movies are my day job, and the moa are my fun thing I do,” Jackson told the Associated Press. “Every New Zealand schoolchild has a fascination with the moa.”
Colossal Biosciences made headlines in October 2024 with their Dire Wolf De-Extinction Project, in which they successfully bred gray wolves that possessed key characteristics of the dire wolf species that lived approximately 13,000 years ago.
Inspired by their debut project, Jackson is now working with Colossal to bring the ancient moa back to life through subfossil sourcing and genetic engineering.
On July 8, Jackson and his partner donated $15 million to the project.
Jackson has also been crucial to introducing Colossal to moa experts that he’s met through his personal hobby of moa bone collecting. To date, Jackson’s personal collection has grown to over 300 bones.
In a statement thanking Jackson for this support, Colossal CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm said: “There is so much knowledge that will be unlocked and shared on the journey to bring back the iconic moa."
According to Colossal, the project will be advised and directed by Māori scholars at the University of Canterbury’s Ngāi Tahu Research Centre. The center, which was created in 2011, is an intellectual hub that supports the tribal development of the Māori people of southern New Zealand.
Recently, Colossal went on an expedition to explore local cave sites known for their moa subfossil deposits (remains that are not yet fully fossilized).
On the trip, Ngāi Tahu archaeologist Kyle Davis remarked that the project to revive the moa has “really reinvigorated the interest in examining our own traditions and mythology.”
“Our earliest ancestors in this place lived alongside moa and our records, both archaeological and oral, contain knowledge about these birds and their environs,” Davis said in a press statement. “We relish the prospect of bringing that into dialogue with Colossal’s cutting-edge science as part of a bold vision for ecological restoration.”
“We are honored to contribute our advanced computational and genetic engineering capabilities under the direction of the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre,” Lamm said, in recognition of the center’s support.
“This partnership represents a new model where indigenous leadership guides scientific endeavors, recognizing that traditional ecological knowledge and cultural context are essential to responsible de-extinction and species preservation efforts.”
The moa project is currently in its infancy, but it is not without reproach.
According to the Associated Press, Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm has many concerns surrounding the project.
“Can you put a species back into the wild once you’ve exterminated it there?” said Pimm, who is not involved with the project.
“I think it’s exceedingly unlikely that they could do this in any meaningful way…this will be an extremely dangerous animal.”
The Dire Wolf De-Extinction Project was also subject to criticism within the scientific community, with the main point of contention being that the same resources should be used to protect existing species.
Other experts argued that genetic engineering cannot truly bring a species back to life.
“There is no current genetic engineering pathway that can truly restore a lost species, especially one missing from its ecological and evolutionary context for hundreds of years,” Philip Seddon, a professor of zoology at the University of Otago in New Zealand, told the Science Media Center. “Any end result will not, cannot be, a moa — a unique treasure created through millennia of adaptation and change.”
In the face of criticism, Colossal has stated that their moa de-extinction project aims to benefit critically endangered birds along the way, by providing valuable data on the development of artificial eggs.
“There will be undoubted great advances in knowledge along the path towards de-extinction,” Trevor Worthy, a vertebrate paleontologist — who is unaffiliated with Colossal — told Live Science on July 10.
“We will get knowledge of the target animals' DNA and for extinct groups such as the moa this will potentially [be] very interesting regarding their evolution, relationships, [and more].”
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Header image via Colossal Biosciences
