Selected from more than $5 million in funding applications, this year's group will obtain seed grants, genetic technologies, and expert assistance to help restore threatened species to their original habitats.

/PRNewswire/ -- The Colossal Foundation, the 501(c)(3) charitable organization of Colossal Biosciences, has revealed the second group of recipients for its Species Reintroduction Fund today, broadening the flagship program to seven new species across four continents. Working with global conservation nonprofit Re:wild, the Fund will allocate its yearly funding pledge of $250,000 to teams focused on returning threatened wildlife to secure wild habitats in Cambodia, the United States, Brazil, Guatemala, Australia, and Canada.

Started in 2025 as the first fund worldwide devoted solely to wildlife reintroduction and rewilding, the Colossal Species Reintroduction Fund has rapidly attracted attention in the sector, receiving nearly $5 million in partnership requests this round, about twenty times its annual budget.

In addition to grants reaching up to $50,000 per project, recipients receive access to genetic tools, new technologies, training, and the worldwide conservation network supporting the Fund, which aids every stage of a reintroduction from planning and genetic evaluation to release and ongoing monitoring.

"The quickest path to making extinction obsolete is to halt it prior to occurrence. This year's group backs seven exceptional conservation teams guiding some of the most ambitious species recovery initiatives globally. The Colossal Foundation is eager to deliver catalytic funding and the strength of our de-extinction resources to assist new partners and give these reintroductions the best opportunity for lasting success."
- Matt James, Executive Director, The Colossal Foundation

"Reintroducing species serves as a strong conservation method since it promotes species recovery and revives functioning ecosystems. Reintroduction efforts are demanding and require solid scientific foundations, sustained dedication, local guidance, cross-organization collaboration, and strong backing from local communities and stakeholders. Via the Species Reintroduction Fund, we aid our conservation partners in addressing local challenges to support their species recovery work. These seven projects illustrate what becomes achievable when creative conservation pairs with the resources required for success."
- Barney Long, Senior Director of Conservation Strategies, Re:wild

THE 2026 COHORT
The Fund's second group backs seven projects covering every phase of species recovery, from a helicopter-supported rescue of one of Asia's largest wild cattle to initial actions toward restoring a key sea star to the Pacific ocean floor. Each is directed by a partner organization working to return a species to an area that requires it.

1. Banteng (Critically Endangered) | Cambodia | Rising Phoenix
The banteng, one of Asia's largest wild cattle, has dropped by about 80% worldwide over the past two decades. Cambodia now stands as one of the species' final strongholds, with survivors spread across separated forest fragments and endangered by extensive snaring and habitat destruction.

Rising Phoenix, the first organization to apply helicopter-assisted wildlife translocation in a banteng range state, has already moved 32 animals to Siem Pang Wildlife Sanctuary. With the Fund's backing, the team will transfer additional banteng from a threatened forest area into the sanctuary, establishing a viable founder population under a developing genetic and demographic management plan.

"Establishing protected areas and expecting wildlife populations to rebound without action is impractical. With 32 Banteng now moved into Siem Pang Wildlife Sanctuary, we have established a viable founding population. Yet many other Banteng herds remain trapped in isolated forest patches across Cambodia that will perish from illegal poaching unless relocated using these same methods."
- Jonathan Eames, CEO of Rising Phoenix

2. Black-footed ferret (Endangered), South Dakota, USA | Turner Institute of Ecoagriculture
The black-footed ferret is North America's sole native ferret and one of the most endangered mammals globally. Every black-footed ferret alive today traces back to just seven founders rescued from the final small population of 18 ferrets rediscovered in Wyoming in 1981. The species relies almost completely on prairie dogs, which form the bulk of its diet and create the burrows it inhabits. Both animals face threats from sylvatic plague, an introduced disease that can eliminate an entire colony in one season.

The Turner Institute of Ecoagriculture has spent years readying Bad River Ranch, a 148,000-acre working bison ranch in central South Dakota, for the ferret's return by restoring prairie-dog colonies and implementing a novel plague-mitigation bait system. With the Fund's support, the team will reintroduce up to 30 captive-bred ferrets and expand suitable habitat using prescribed fire, bison grazing, and disease management, showing how endangered species can recover on private, working land.

"Bison, prairie dogs, fire - agents of ecological change employed by the Turner Institute of Ecoagriculture for managing wild, working lands of the Great Plains. With assistance from Colossal, Re:wild and the Species Reintroduction Fund we are restoring black-footed ferrets - one of the rarest carnivores in the world - to the ecological mix at Bad River Ranches in South Dakota. This distinctive effort uses historical disturbance patterns of fire and bison grazing to promote keystone effects of prairie dogs that can, in turn, sustain endangered black-footed ferrets."
- Dr. Magnus McCaffery, Deputy Director at Turner Institute of Ecoagriculture

3. Brown howler monkey (Vulnerable) | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Refauna
The last individual to record a brown howler monkey in what is now Rio de Janeiro's Tijuca National Park was Charles Darwin, in 1832. Today, the species is classified as "Vulnerable" by the IUCN Red List, and "Endangered" on Brazil's National Red List and stands among the world's 25 most endangered primates. Howlers are also highly susceptible to yellow fever, which killed thousands of Brazilian primates during a 2017 outbreak.

Refauna has rebuilt a small population in the national park, one of the most visited on Earth, that now totals just 12 to 14 animals. With the Fund's support, the team will release a new, yellow-fever-vaccinated social group to enhance genetic diversity and resilience, sequence the founders' genomes, and improve translocation practices that are already being adopted elsewhere in the Atlantic Forest, one of the planet's most threatened and biodiverse hotspots.

"The return of the brown howler monkey to Tijuca National Park is far more than the reintroduction of a single species. It signifies the recovery of ecological interactions, ecosystem functions, and people's connection with nature. The partnership with Re:wild and the Colossal Foundation through the Species Reintroduction Fund marks an important step for the conservation of the brown howler monkey (Alouatta guariba) in Brazil. Beyond aiding the continuation of this reintroduction effort in the most visited national park in Brazil, this funding will help raise the chances of long-term persistence of the population in the area, contribute to manage a safety populations, and strengthen other reintroduction initiatives for the species that are occurring across the Atlantic Forest, one of the most threatened biodiversity hotspots in the world."
- Dr. Marcelo Rheingantz, Director of Refauna

4. Campbell's alligator lizard (Critically Endangered) | Guatemala | FUNDESGUA
Campbell's alligator lizard is a small, dragon-like tree-dweller found nowhere on Earth but a single mountain system in eastern Guatemala. Described only in 1993 and once feared extinct, it survives in the last fragments of a cloud forest that has lost most of its original extent.

Because the lizard is arboreal and cannot cross open ground to recolonize on its own, restoring its habitat is the essential first step toward recovery. With the Fund's support, FUNDESGUA will propagate at least 10,000 native pine-oak and cloud-forest seedlings and restore more than 16 hectares to establish what would become the first protected area in the world dedicated to the species, laying the groundwork for reintroduction of this endemic species.

"In a single mountain ecosystem in Guatemala lies the entire and only home of a small dragon-like arboreal lizard: Campbell's alligator lizard (Abronia campbelli). Habitat loss within this highly restricted range has pushed this unique species to the verge of extinction. We are very proud to have the support of the Species Reintroduction Fund as we work to restore the ecological conditions necessary for the long-term recovery of the species in the wild."
- Monica Torres, Administrative Director of FUNDESGUA

5. Guam kingfisher / Sihek (Extinct in the Wild) | Palmyra Atoll | The Nature Conservancy
The Sihek, or Guam kingfisher, is a jewel-colored bird that for decades has lived only in human care. After the brown tree snake was accidentally introduced to Guam following World War II, it consumed nearly the island's entire community of forest birds. By 1988 the Sihek was declared Extinct in the Wild, surviving only because 29 of the last birds had been brought into a breeding program. For nearly four decades, not a single Sihek flew free.

That changed in 2024, when nine young birds were released on The Nature Conservancy's Palmyra Atoll Preserve, a remote, snake-free refuge chosen as a stepping-stone on the long road back to Guam. Eighteen months later, all nine are alive and have laid the first wild Sihek eggs in a generation. With the Fund's support, the recovery team will release a second cohort of nine birds this year, adding genetic and demographic diversity to the fledgling wild population.

"The flash of the Sihek's cinnamon and turquoise feathers through the Palmyra Atoll canopy is a symbol of hope for all species - showing that, through courageous conservation action, we can turn the tide of extinction. We are proud to be able to provide The Nature Conservancy's Palmyra Atoll Preserve as the first wild home for Guam Sihek in nearly 40 years. With our partners in the Sihek Recovery Project and this vital support from the Species Reintroduction Fund, nine young Sihek will journey to Palmyra later this year, bolstering this growing population and building hope that their descendants may one day fly in their native forests on Guam."
- Dr. Caitlin Andrews, Bird Conservation Scientist, The Nature Conservancy & Zoological Society of London

6. Northern quoll (Endangered) | Queensland, Australia | Australian Wildlife Conservancy
The northern quoll is an Endangered, spotted marsupial predator that once ranged across northern Australia. Its decline is driven by invasive cane toads, introduced in 1935 and lethal to the quolls that try to eat them, together with feral cats and habitat loss.

The Australian Wildlife Conservancy has founded populations of 23 species across its sanctuary network. With the Fund's support, AWC will translocate up to 30 wild quolls - selected from populations that have demonstrated natural tolerance or avoidance of cane toads - into a 950-hectare feral-predator-free safe haven at Mount Zero-Taravale in north Queensland, fitting many with tracking collars and establishing the monitoring protocols to grow a self-sustaining founder population and restore the quoll's role as a top-order predator.

"In recent history, the Northern Quoll story has been one of decline as cane toads and cats spread throughout their range, but it does not have to continue that way. Reintroduction of endangered species to safe havens enables us to restore environmental balance and important cultural species to where they belong. With support from the Colossal Foundation's Species Reintroduction Fund, we have the chance to change the trajectory of the Northern Quoll at Mount Zero-Taravale, on Gugu Badhun Country, and shift its story from loss to one of recovery and resilience."