Two endangered ferrets cloned from genes of creatures frozen in the 1980s

(CHEYENNE, Wyoming) — Two more black-footed ferrets have been cloned from the genes used for the first clone of an endangered species in the U.S., bringing to three the number of stealthy predators genetically identical to one of the last animals found . in the wild, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday.

Efforts to create first clone, a female named Elizabeth Ann born in 2021, failed, but the recent births of two more cloned females, named Noreen and Antonia, in combination with a captive breeding program launched in the 1980s, are raising hopes of diversifying the endangered species. Genetic diversity can improve a species’ ability to adapt and survive despite disease outbreaks and changing environmental conditions.

Energetic and curious, black-footed ferrets are a nocturnal type of weasel with dark markings on their eyes that resemble a burglar’s mask. Their prey is prairie dogs, and ferrets hunt the rodents in large burrow colonies on the plains.

Black-footed ferrets are now a conservation success story – after being nearly wiped out in the wild, thousands of them have been bred in captivity and reintroduced at dozens of locations in the western US, Canada and Mexico since the 1990s.

Because they fed exclusively on prairie dogs, they fell victim to the efforts of farmers and ranchers to poison and shoot the earth-shaking rodents—so much so that they were considered extinct, until a farm dog named Shep brought a dead one home to the West. from Wyoming in 1981. Conservationists were able to capture seven more and establish a breeding program.

But their genetic heritage is small – all black-footed ferrets known today are descendants of these seven animals – so diversifying the species is extremely important.

Noreen and Antonia, as Elizabeth Anne, are genetically identical to Willa, one of the original seven. Willa’s remains — frozen in the 1980s and kept at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Frozen Zoo — could help conservation efforts because her genes contain about three times as many unique variations as are currently found among black-footed ferrets. , according to Fish. and Wildlife Service.

Elizabeth Ann still lives at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center in Fort Collins, Colorado, but has been unable to breed due to a reproductive organ problem that is not the result of cloning, the Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement.

Biologists plan to try to breed Noreen and Antonia after they reach maturity later this year.

The ferrets were born at the ferret conservation center last May. The Fish and Wildlife Service waited nearly a year to announce the births amid ongoing scientific work, other black-footed ferret breeding efforts and other agency priorities, a Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson said. , Joe Szuszwalak, via email.

“Science takes time and does not happen instantly,” Szuszwalak wrote.

Cloning produces a new plant or animal by copying the genes of an existing animal. To clone these three ferrets, the Fish and Wildlife Service worked with zoo and conservation organizations and ViaGen Pets & Equine, a Texas company that clones horses for $85,000 and pet dogs for $50,000.

The company also cloned a Przewalski wild Horsea species from Mongolia.