On the Ides of March, hundreds of attendees in the Grosvenor Auditorium at the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC heard Dr. Burney and about 20 other speakers hold forth on all aspects of the emerging concept of “De-Extinction.” There has been quite a media frenzy ever since.

Host Stewart Brand and Dr. David Burney on stage

The idea that scientists actually can bring back certain extinct species is now out there. Current discussion, as highlighted in the companion cover article in the April National Geographic Magazine centers around why we would or would not want to do this, and which species first. It looks like the Australian group working on bringing back the Gastric Brooding Frog is closest to full success. Anyway, follow the excitement at www.TEDxDeExtinction.org.

Dr. Burney’s talk featured the many restoration successes at Makauwahi Cave Reserve, as a model site for the rewilding concepts described in Back to the Future in the Caves of Kaua`i. In his introduction Stewart Brand compared Makauwahi Cave to the exciting rewilding projects with the aurochs springing up all over Europe, and the Pleistocene Park project of Sergei Zimov in northeastern Siberia.