Once endemic to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, the bulldog rat was russet colored, dwelling on hills and in thick forests. The creatures' demeanor has been described as sluggish --- avoiding daylight, for it dazed them, and never climbing into trees or shrubs. They were last seen in 1903, when sailors observed mass die offs, which were later attributed to diseases carried by black rats that had stowed away on colonial ships. Its murine neighbor on Christmas Island, Maclear's rat (Rattus macleari), followed it into extinction soon after. In March 2022, researchers in Current Biology speculated about a possible pathway toward de-extinction through gene editing, prompting some Jurassic Park style fearmongering in the popular science news