Historians Wonder if DNA Can Save Parakeet

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Could the awesome and seemingly limitless power of DNA be focused on a parakeet?

That question is intriguing historians who want to bring back the extinct Carolina parakeet – the only parrot species native to South Carolina.

There are still 37 egg shells from the parakeets in museums around the country. The Franklin County Historical Association in Mount Vernon, Texas, discovered last year it had a Carolina parakeet egg in its collection.

In preparing it for exhibit, the museum decided not to clean it after someone mentioned the shell could have a bit of dried DNA from blood or fluid.

Could it be used to bring the creatures back?

“The people have talked it up. But who knows? That’s pretty far-fetched. That’s ‘Jurassic Park,’” said B.F. Hicks, town historian.

“That’s movies, not real life,” agreed Jean Woods, bird curator for the Delaware Museum of Natural History. “But on the other hand, I’m not saying it can’t happen.”

The last Carolina parakeet known to be alive in the state was eaten by a pig in the 1890s. The birds were wiped out as the result of hunting by farmers and the loss of swamp habitat.