Richard Dawkins recently tweeted,
Why bother (to clone mammoths)? Why bother? Why bother to go on living? Why not just stop breathing if you are that incurious?
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins)July 15, 2013
But it is not just curiosity that drives the imperative to introduce extinct, novel or threatened species. We now have the power not only to obliterate life from the planet, but also to protect and manage it.