An endangered animal that was created by cloning gave birth to two healthy offspring at a Smithsonian Institution/National Zoo center in Virginia, in what a federal agency called a conservation milestone.
Authorities indicated that techniques used in their work with black-footed ferrets could help preserve other endangered species.
The two ferrets were born in June to a cloned mother at the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service called it an exciting research achievement that broke new ground in efforts to preserve the animals. The work could also help in preserving other endangered species, animal specialists said.
The cloned ferret mother, Antonia, gave birth after mating with a male ferret named Urchin, the federal wildlife agency announced last week. Antonia was born last year, created from preserved genetic material from Willa, a female ferret that died in 1988 without descendants.
Cloning provided the opportunity to bring the genes of an eighth “founder” into the existing ferret population, according to Revive & Restore, one of several organizations involved in the ferret project.
Antonia was described as the first cloned ferret to restore lost genetic variation to its species. One of her kits died, but two survived. Sibert is a female and Red Cloud is a male.
They are “doing well,” said Revive & Restore.
Their birth represented “a critical step forward” in the use of the cloning process to produce greater genetic diversity in conservation, the wildlife agency said.
Genetic diversity is vital to the healthy, long-term recovery of an endangered species, the wildlife agency said, and the cloned ferret mother showed three times the genetic diversity of the current population of endangered ferrets.
Except for the clones and the new offspring, all black-footed ferrets alive today are descended from the same seven forebears, authorities said. The new process introduces genes that have not previously been represented and could be important in ensuring a healthy recovery of the species over the years.
“The successful breeding and subsequent birth of Antonia’s kits marks a major milestone in endangered species conservation,” said Paul Marinari, senior curator at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.
“The many partners in the Black-footed Ferret Recovery Program continue their innovative and inspirational efforts to save this species and be a model for other conservation programs across the globe,” he said.
Black-footed ferrets once numbered in the tens of thousands, but they almost disappeared because of a combination of human-induced threats, according to specialists. Twice in the 20th century, they were thought to be extinct. Today, a major recovery effort is underway.
The ferrets, which have been described as wiry, weasel-like and cute, once ranged throughout the North American Great Plains wherever they could find prairie dogs, on which they relied for food, specialists say. They have been reintroduced into parts of their former dwelling places in Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana and Arizona, according to animal research and conservation officials.
A variety of other conservation techniques are being used in efforts to preserve the black-footed ferret, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.
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