Can we revive old species?
Oddworld Inhabitants
Abe returns, this time to assist Munch, the last of the gabbit species on all of Oddworld. His species has been fished to extinction by the Vykkers because their eggs are a delicacy marketed as "gabbiar" for the dominant species on the planet, and Munch seeks to find the last known can of gabbiar eggs in order to revive his species. Like Abe, Munch was the embodiment of the "disturbing, sad reality that's happening in our world today [turned] into a character that people like" in the dysfunctional 21st century. Where Disney "won the 20th century, that's not the future, because kids just don't dig that anymore, we're dealing with different kids... it's a dysfunctional world... if we can embody dysfunctional characters that are really endearing, then we think that's what people are really going to connect with." Munch's conceptualisation came from hundreds of design concepts based on combining imagery of cats in UCLA medical labs and facial cream testing divisions with images of rabbits used in pharmaceutical testing and the "pure evil" of U.S. radiation experiments on unwitting elderly citizens seeking medical assistance. The theme of species extinction came from Lanning's experiences as a child growing up, fishing on the Connecticut river and watching species of fish literally die out due to acid rain and factories built nearby. He wanted Munch to embody loneliness and loss to hit the heart strings of the audience, and as with Abe, he begins the game at the "conceptual position of biggest loser, the most downtrodden, hopeless possible position" because "the Oddworld series is all about big, corporate bullies picking on the little guy," and Lanning wanted "every hero we built on Oddworld [to] come out of that soil," so his story was again couched in "the dark side of globalisation" that would be the basis of all Oddworld stories:
Dolly (sheep)
Cloning may have uses in preserving endangered species and may become a viable tool for reviving extinct species. In January 2009, scientists from the Centre of Food Technology and Research of Aragon, in northern Spain announced the cloning of the Pyrenean ibex, a form of wild mountain goat, which was officially declared extinct in 2000. Although the newborn ibex died shortly after birth due to physical defects in its lungs, it is the first time an extinct animal has been cloned, and may open doors for saving endangered and newly extinct species by resurrecting them from frozen tissue.