Russians cloning wooly mammoths, Jurassic Park-style "Ice Age theme park" may be in the works

Well their domesticated foxes are really cute. What could go wrong?

Via Inquisitr:

Russian scientists hope to clone woolly mammoths, cave lions, and certain extinct species of horses within ten years - and then showcase the animals before paying tourists at a theme park, The Siberian Times is reporting.

Call it a slightly-less-terrifying version of Jurassic Park, the famed movie franchise based on the idea of cloning extinct animals and then taking money from tourists who pay to see them. In the movies, scientists clone fearsome T-Rex's, velociraptors, and other dinosaurs - terrifying species that have been extinct for tens of millions of years. But the species that Northern-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) in Yakutsk have in mind to clone have only been extinct for about 10,000 years, and indeed walked alongside modern humans.

The university administrator says that, with the right investment (about $5.9 million), the region will have a "world-class paleo-genetic scientific center." What's more, the regional government of Sakha republic has promised that money.

The Siberian Times article does not mention a theme park specifically, however. But, according to Fox News, one of the officials assigned to the project has spoken of an "Ice Age Theme Park" before - in 2014, specifically.