De-Extinct Dire Wolves Are Officially Larger Than Modern Grey Wolves

The dire wolves brought back from extinction earlier this year are on track with their milestones and have surpassed their cousin wolves in size in the process. 

On Wednesday, Sept. 3, Rob Keyes of ScreenRant visited the genetic engineering company Colossal Biosciences at its headquarters in Dallas, which is set to open in October. During the visit, Colossal Biosciences’ chief animal officer Matt James confirmed that dire wolves Khaleesi, Romulus, and Remus are exceeding the team’s expectations in growth and development. 

“They’re growing rapidly,” said James. “Right now the boys are north of 115 pounds, which in the context of an adult gray wolf — say in Yellowstone [National Park] — that’s 100, 105 pounds is normal. So they’re 10 months old, and they’re already 115 pounds.” 

“I’ve got a [dedicated] team of three people that just basically live with the wolves at the moment,” James added. 

James also confirmed that Colossal Biosciences, co-founded by CEO Ben Lamm, is looking to create more dire wolves while continuing research on the dire wolf genome, and expects the animals to arrive on a quicker timeline than the first pack. 

“We will continue to dive into the dire wolf genome and see if there are additional pieces of that genome that should be incorporated into the de-extincted dire wolf, but otherwise, the process will remain the same,” said James. “I mean, it was such a success. I don’t think there was much that we’re going to tweak other than really minor things.”

James added, “There is a trick to adding different age classes. So we have to be really particular about when we give birth to the next pack, or the next individuals, and how they’re integrated into the pack.” 

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Khaleesi, Romulus, and Remus were introduced to the public in April.

“Our team took DNA from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies,” Lamm shared in a statement at the time. “It was once said, ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ Today, our team gets to unveil some of the magic they are working on and its broader impact on conservation.”

Since then, Colossal Bioscience has shared more about its dextinction project and milestone updates about the dire wolves on its social channels. Earlier this month, the team introduced Khaleesi, the female dire wolf, to the male dire wolves, Romulus and Remus, who had been in separate enclosures up to that point for safety purposes. 

The trainers carefully observed the meeting and noticed the dire wolves’ playful personalities come out around each other, despite a bit of hesitancy from Khaleesi at first.

Khaleesi met the male dire wolves separately, and after those two successful play sessions, all three were brought together.

Alongside creating additional dire wolves, Colossal Biosciences has also announced plans to bring back the extinct moa bird — a giant, flightless bird that once roamed New Zealand — with the help of Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.