Meet Elizabeth Ann, the First Cloned Black-Footed Ferret

Her birth represents the first cloning of an endangered species native to North America, and may bring needed genetic diversity to the species. From a report: Last year, Ben Novak drove across the country to spend New Year's Eve with a black-footed ferret. Elizabeth Ann had just turned 21 days old -- surely a milestone for any ferret but a particularly meaningful one for Elizabeth Ann, the first of any native, endangered animal species in North America to be cloned. Mr. Novak, the lead scientist of the biotechnology nonprofit Revive & Restore, bought a trailer camper to drive his wife and identical twin toddlers from North Carolina to the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center near Fort Collins, Colo. (They made one pit stop in Texas to see Kurt, the first cloned Przewalski's horse.) Mr. Novak spent less than 15 minutes with Elizabeth Ann, whose black mask, feet and tail were just beginning to show through her downy white fur. "It felt like time stopped," Mr. Novak said. Thankfully, time has not stopped for Elizabeth Ann, who now looks bigger, browner and considerably more like a ferret. Her successful cloning is the culmination of a yearslong collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Revive & Restore, the for-profit company ViaGen Pets & Equine, San Diego Zoo Global and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Cloned siblings are on the way, and potential (cloned) mates are already being lined up. If successful, the project could bring needed genetic diversity to the endangered species. And it marks another promising advance in the wider effort to use cloning to retrieve an ever-growing number of species from the brink of extinction. The black-footed ferret, the first species to be reintroduced to former habitats with the help of artificial insemination, has long been a model species for new conservation technologies. So it is fitting that the ferrets have become the second species to be cloned for this type of genetic rescue. (Elizabeth Ann follows in the footsteps of Kurt the horse.) "Pinch me," joked Oliver Ryder, the director of conservation genetics at San Diego Zoo Global, over a Zoom call. "The cells of this animal banked in 1988 have become an animal."

"cloned mates"...

[Anonymous Coward]

and the slashdot world is saved...

Anyone else think it's weird. . .

[MagusSlurpy]

. . . that a cloning magnate has "twin" children?

Re:

[Whateverthisis]

I wonder if they live only 4 years. The star that burns twice as bright burns half as long and all that.

Re:

[RightSaidFred99]

We both saw Orphan Black or any of the dozens of other movies with the evil mad scientists, I think.

Cloning brings diversity?

[Anonymous Coward]

cloning ... may bring needed genetic diversity

Do I really want to RTFA? Yeah, no.

Re:

[superzerg]

I thought the same, specially as it is stated twice in the summary ... To be fair, the fact that the cells comes from an animal from a animal from 1988 may indeed reintroduce some diversity assuming there is no alive descendants.

Re:Cloning brings diversity?

[strech]

When you clone an animal not related to the existing population, you do actually introduce genetic diversity; they cloned a ferret with no living relatives:

Dr. Ryder’s lab received more samples in 1988, one belonging to a ferret named Willa who was caught in the wild. Willa had offspring but they had died; by black-footed ferret standards, she was brimming with potential genetic diversity. The Frozen Zoo established a cell culture from Willa and stored it in their enormous freezer, which cradles the cells of 1,100 different species of animals including an extinct Hawaiian honeycreeper and the highly endangered vaquita, a porpoise species, at minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit. ...
The first trial began around Halloween. The Frozen Zoo sent Willa’s cryogenically preserved cell line to ViaGen’s lab in New York. ViaGen created embryos and implanted them into a domestic ferret surrogate. At day 14, an ultrasound confirmed heartbeats.

The surrogate was shipped to the conservation center and was watched 24 hours a day for signs of labor. On Dec. 10, Elizabeth Ann was delivered via C-section. “Our beautiful little clone,” Mr. Novak said.

Most species aren't going to have samples this straightforward, but this is a valuable first step for smaller populations (and eventually potential reintroduction of extinct ones).

Re: Cloning brings diversity?

[Atomic Fro]

Fake news gaslighting at its best.

Re:

[Aighearach]

I kun haz red?

Funny name for a ferret.

[zawarski]

So severely deformed, in fact, that, just as John Merrick is known as the Elephant Man, Bacon Sandwich, here, is known as the Pig Ferret.

Genetic Diversity??

[cygnusvis]

the project could bring needed genetic diversity to the endangered species

Cloning brings genetic diversity? wut?

Cloning would be more interesting if it involved a synthetic womb.

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[93 Escort Wagon]

Cloning would be more interesting if it involved a synthetic womb.

I hear they're working on producing genetically modified Axolotls for that purpose.

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[Aighearach]

You'll have to wait thousands of years for that, are you sure you read the actual book and not CliffsNotes?

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[gtall]

The donor died 30 years ago. It could easily add to the genetic diversity of the current lot. Time is an important concept. You could look it up on the intertubes. You can search and do all kinds of stuff.

Cloning

[jvkjvk]

. Mr. Novak, the lead scientist of the biotechnology nonprofit Revive & Restore, bought a trailer camper to drive his wife and identical twin toddlers from North Carolina

Isn't it a bit suspicious that a scientist involved in cloning has identical twin toddlers? Coincidence? I think not!

Re: Cloning

[codeButcher]

Yeah, whoever wrote the story missed a great chance to use the word clone one more time. S/he may also have come dangerously close to intruding on a family's privacy by adding presumably irrelevant information for some "human interest" angle.

But, also see Chekhov"s Gun.

Cloning Problem

[JohnnyCanuck2013]

The problem with cloning is that the new animal will have all the age-related problems of the doner animal. They will have shorter telomeres than a natural born animal for example. They will die sooner than a naturally born animal that was born at the same time.

Re:

[Aighearach]

That is a small price to pay to increase the genetic donors from 7 to 8.

heyy

[Alicenagee]

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