One of the main issues is that not all animals can be successfully cloned yet. However, there are also some major limitations to cloning. Related: Is it possible to clone a dinosaur? This opens up the possibility of reviving extinct species by using closely related living surrogate species, he added. "For mammals, it appears that two species must share a common ancestor less than 5 million years ago" for the surrogate pregnancy to be successful, Novak said. These genetic backups can then be introduced into the wild to replenish struggling populations, Novak said. Rather than taking animals from the wild to create a back-up population in captivity, scientists can take genetic samples from wild animals and create clones in the lab using more readily available surrogates, as they did with Maya and her beagle mother. If the clones can reproduce with other non-cloned individuals, this gives threatened species a fighting chance to adapt to the selection pressures that are driving them towards extinction, he added.Īnother benefit of cloning is that it can be used in conjunction with existing captive-breeding programs, especially when surrogate mothers from other species are used, Novak said. The main benefit of cloning endangered species is that it maintains the amount of genetic diversity within a species, Novak said. Przewalski's horses are one of the endangered species that have already been cloned. "In the future, it could be a literal lifeline for species that become rarer or worse, go extinct." "Cloning is a drastically underutilized tool," Ben Novak, lead scientist at Revive & Restore, told Live Science in an email. That same year, the company also successfully cloned an endangered Przewalski’s horse ( Equus przewalskii), and their technicians are now attempting to revive the extinct passenger pigeon ( Ectopistes migratorius) using cloning technology. In 2020, scientists from U.S.-based non-profit conservation organization Revive & Restore successfully cloned an endangered black-footed ferret ( Mustela nigripes). Instead, they are listed as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, though climate change is likely to severely disrupt their food supply in the wild in coming decades, according to WWF.īut endangered species have been cloned by scientists before. Cloning endangered animalsĭespite reports from Global Times and other media outlets, Arctic wolves, which are a subspecies of gray wolves ( Canis lupus) are not an endangered species. In 2019, Sinogene was also involved with a project that produced six identical German shepherd clones, which were then inducted into the Beijing police force, according to CBS News. The company also announced a new partnership with the Beijing Wildlife Park to clone more captive species in the future, although no specific projects have yet been announced, according to Global Times. (Image credit: Sinogene Biotechnology Co.)
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