Scientists clone the first U.S. endangered species
Very good story.
Science being used for good things--like in this case. Man destroyed the little creatures and now helping to bring them back.
Scientists clone the first U.S. endangered species
A black-footed ferret was duplicated from the genes of an animal that died more than 30 years ago.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/animal-news/scientists-clone-first-u-s-endangered-species-n1258310?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma
2021.U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP
Feb. 18, 2021, 10:58 PM CST
By The Associated Press
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Scientists have cloned the first U.S. endangered species, a black-footed ferret duplicated from the genes of an animal that died over 30 years ago.
The slinky predator named Elizabeth Ann, born Dec. 10 and announced Thursday, is cute as a button. But watch out — unlike the domestic ferret foster mom who carried her into the world, she’s wild at heart...........................
Even before cloning, black-footed ferrets were a conservation success story. They were thought extinct — victims of habitat loss as ranchers shot and poisoned off prairie dog colonies that made rangelands less suitable for cattle — until a ranch dog named Shep brought a dead one home in Wyoming in 1981.
Scientists gathered the remaining population for a captive breeding program that has released thousands of ferrets at dozens of sites in the western U.S., Canada and Mexico since the 1990s.
Lack of genetic diversity presents an ongoing risk. All ferrets reintroduced so far are the descendants of just seven closely related animals — genetic similarity that makes today’s ferrets potentially susceptible to intestinal parasites and diseases such as sylvatic plague.........................
Image: Cloned ferret
Elizabeth Ann is the first cloned black-footed ferret and first-ever cloned U.S. endangered species, at 50-days old on Jan. 29,
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