The New South Wales government’s decision to pause aerial culling of feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park has led to a dramatic rebound in their numbers, with the latest survey estimating a population of between 6,476 and 16,411—a sharp increase from the 2,131 to 5,639 counted the previous year when shooting was briefly resumed. Conservation groups have called for an urgent reassessment of the retention zones that allow thousands of horses to remain in the park, arguing that the surge undermines efforts to protect native ecosystems. Aerial culling is set to resume in June, but the hiatus has left a clear imprint on the landscape.

Such direct, often contentious management of existing wildlife stands in stark contrast to the ambitions of Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based biotechnology firm that this week announced a milestone in its quest to revive extinct species. The company reported that 26 chicks had hatched from artificial eggs—3D-printed lattice structures that mimic the porosity and strength of real shells, allowing the embryos to breathe without the need for a hen. Colossal framed the achievement as a step toward resurrecting large extinct birds such as the giant moa of New Zealand, which disappeared around 1500. The announcement, heavily promoted on social media, follows last year’s claim of having “de-extincted” the dire wolf, a feat met with widespread scientific scepticism.

Viewed from the United States, the breathlessness surrounding Colossal’s announcements has drawn criticism from biologists who argue that the hype diverts attention and resources from conservation of living species. Paul Knoepfler of UC Davis warned that “de-extinction breathlessness potentially endangers real animals for the sake of hypothetical future de-extincted ones.” In Australia, the debate is less about bringing back long-gone creatures than about controlling the ones now overrunning protected areas. Yet both narratives converge on a fundamental question: how far should humans intervene in the natural world?

As the NSW government prepares to resume culling, and as Colossal pushes ahead with its artificial incubation and gene-editing projects, the tension between pragmatic population control and technological resurrection is likely to intensify. The feral horse surge in Kosciuszko serves as a real-world reminder of the consequences of pausing one form of intervention, even as another form aims to rewrite the past. Whether either approach yields lasting ecological benefits remains an open question.