I personally think successfully resurrecting the Thylacine and reintroducing it longterm to Tasmania would be a better aim over all these comments on Mammoth cloning
Advantages:
- smaller (but still a macro-sized animal)
- multiple surrogate options rather than just African Elephants
- the ecosystem would be better with its capstone apex predator back
- it only died out so recently that it has footage from zoos
Unlike the elephant / mammoth pairing, there aren't any marsupials similar to Thylacine (as far as I know). What surrogate options did you have in mind?
Advantages: - smaller (but still a macro-sized animal) - multiple surrogate options rather than just African Elephants - the ecosystem would be better with its capstone apex predator back - it only died out so recently that it has footage from zoos