Dire Dogos...

Not much going on besides splitting wood, so hope to have a winters worth done by the end of the month, then can move on to something more interesting. One of the things I've been reading about is the re-creation of the dire wolf, an extinct  Pleistocene predator made famous in the series Game of Thrones. Apparently the species was re-created through genetic engineering of the current grey wolf. Read about it here...

https://www.livescience.com/animals/extinct-species/dire-wolves-are-back-from-extinction-thanks-to-genetically-engineered-pups

But of course there were many biologists who quickly criticized it as hyperbole...

https://www.livescience.com/animals/extinct-species/colossals-de-extincted-dire-wolf-isnt-a-dire-wolf-and-it-has-not-been-de-extincted-experts-say

Regardless, it's kind of cool that, even if just to some limited degree, they have brought back an extinct species. So here's some photos...

The genetically engineered pups. You can call them dires or modified grey wolves, but they're still pretty darn cute.

Here's our version, the dire dogo at 6 weeks, held by the original owner before we brought him home.

The dire wolves have grown. Apparently there were 2 litters and the older ones are almost full size now. While these modern dire wolves have white coats, there's no evidence that all (or any) dire wolves were white. The pale coloration seen in them is due to genetic editing, not natural coloration.

https://www.iflscience.com/colossals-dire-wolves-are-now-6-months-old-and-theyve-doubled-in-size-79776

Mac, our dour wolf also likes to play with sticks, though it's not from genetic engineering, just being a goofy sled dog  (GOT-cha 9/10/21).