Two more black- footed ferrets, one of North America’s rarest mammals, have been cloned, federal officials announced Wednesday.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday the births last year of Noreen and Antonia, two baby ferrets cloned from cells frozen nearly four decades ago., one of North America’s most endangered mammals. Once thought to be extinct, today’s wild ferret population descends from just seven individuals, representing a severe lack of genetic diversity that threatens the long-term survival of the species.
One of the female ferrets, named Willa, didn’t leave any living descendants. So in 1988, scientists collected some of her cells and froze them at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, where the genetic material of some 1,200 species are kept on ice in its, appeared healthy. But she never took interest in the suitors presented to her. “She didn’t like the males, and she didn’t even let them into her tunnel,” Novak said. “She bit one of them on the nose.
Now Noreen and Antonia, both born last May, represent a second attempt at reviving Willa’s genetically distinct lineage. The cloned animals were made by injecting one of Willa’s cells into an egg from a domesticated ferret.
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