An Endangered Animal Was Just Cloned For The First Time In History & She's Adorable
For the first time in history, an endangered animal was successfully cloned, and it may just save the species.
Elizabeth Ann, a black-footed ferret, made history after she was cloned using frozen cells of an ancestor that lived nearly 30 years ago, and now scientists have big plans for the animal's future.
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It provides a promising tool for continued efforts to conserve the black-footed ferret.
Noreen Walsh with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)
The cloned ferret was born through a surrogate mother, and scientists hope she will be able to eventually breed and help bring the species out of near-extinction.
The FWS says all current living black-footed ferrets are descendants of just seven ancestors, and Elizabeth Ann's birth will hopefully help boost that number because her potential offspring could diversify the species.
Black-footed ferrets continue to be one of the county's most endangered species, and they were even declared extinct in 1979 until a Wyoming rancher discovered a small population on his land in 1981.
Ferrets from that population were then captured and put through a breeding program in an attempt to recover the species.