The black-footed ferret is the first North American endangered species to be cloned in a laboratory.
Meet Elizabeth Anne, a very special black footed ferret. Black footed ferrets are critically endangered; all currently living black footed ferrets are descended from the last seven animals that were taken into a captive breeding program to save the species.
Well, all but one. Elizabeth Anne is a clone of a ferret named Willa whose genetic material was cryogenically preserved in 1988. She is the only living black footed ferret to not be descended from the original seven founder animals, and that makes her a beam of hope for the genetic diversity of the species.
Last year, the same company responsible for Elizabeth Anne’s birth cloned a critically endangered Przewalski’s horse, which you can read more about here.
Image Source: (1)
