For the first time ever, scientists have successfully cloned an endangered animal native to North America. On Thursday (February 18), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that a black-footed ferret named Elizabeth Ann was born on December 10 at the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center near Fort Collins, Colorado. Elizbeth Ann was created using cells from a ferret named Willa that died in 1988.
Willa's body was frozen and sent to a "frozen zoo" run by San Diego Zoo Global, which has the genetic material of more than 1,000 animals in cold storage.
While Elizabeth Ann was born to a domesticated ferret, she has many of the traits of a ferret born in the wild.
"You might have been handling a black-footed ferret kit, and then they try to take your finger off the next day," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service black-footed ferret recovery coordinator Pete Gober said. "She's holding her own."
Elizabeth Ann will spend her life at the conservation center and will be joined by Willa's other clones and potential mates. When the ferrets reach sexual maturity, they will breed. Their offspring will then be bred with wild ferrets.
"It will be a slow, methodical process," Dr. Samantha Wisely, a conservation geneticist at the University of Florida, said according to the New York Times. "We need to make absolutely sure that we're not endangering the genetic lineage of black-footed ferrets by introducing this individual."
Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service