The black-footed ferret species is one of the successful instances of cloning endangered animals, with three healthy clones born since 2020. Image source: J. Michael Lockhart/USFWS, via Wikimedia Commons
Scientists in the US have recently announced that their cloning efforts regarding the endangered black-footed ferrets have led to a second and third birth.
The scientific team behind this involves collaboration between biotech conservation group Revive and Restore; ViaGen Pets and Equine, a private pet cloning company; San Diego Zoo Global; and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced the births of Noreen and Antonia on Thursday, though the ferrets were born in February.
Noreen was born at the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center in Colorado. Meanwhile, Antonia resides at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia.
The two ferrets share the same genetic base and the first successfully cloned ferret, Elizabeth Ann, who was born in 2020. She was created from the cells of Willa, a black-footed ferret who lived over 30 years prior with no descendants.
Black-footed ferrets, also known as American Polecats, declined greatly in number throughout the 20th century, before being declared extinct in 1979.
However, a residual population was discovered in the wild in 1981, which grew to a cohort over 130 individuals before disease reduced the population to a mere 18 ferrets.
These 18 ferrets serve as the basis for the black-footed ferret breeding programs, with seven managing to survive and reproduce, leading to a genetic bottleneck in the ferret population.
Fewer than 500 black-footed ferrets live in the wild, with the population still at risk from many threats, including diseases such as sylvatic plague and canine distemper.
Willa was not one of the seven ferrets who founded the current population, which allows for her genetic diversity to potentially be re-introduced into the species through the cloning process.
Her tissue samples were collected in 1988 and stored in San Diego Zoo’s Frozen Zoo, which stores over 10,000 living cell cultures and other material of different species.
While plans to breed Elizabeth Ann were unsuccessful, efforts will be made to breed Noreen and Antonia once they reach reproductive age. Elizabeth Ann remains in “excellent health” at the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center in northern Colorado.
Noreen and Antonia are also noted to be in good health as they grow.
