Black-Footed Ferret

Hello, this isWild Suzhou. Today, we will betalking about the black-footed ferret and how it might be saved from goingextinct. The black-footed ferret doesn’t lookextraordinary compared to other types of ferrets. It’s mostly white and lightbrown, with black feet, a black tipped tail, and black mask on its face. Italso has a dark brown back. The black footed ferret is endangered, with onlyaround 500 of them left in the wild. Habitat loss, disease, and less food for theblack footed ferret to eat make it more difficult for the species to survive.Nowadays, humans step in to help the species, usually by vaccinating theferrets and also using insecticides to protect them from fleas. However, a new solution for saving theblack-footed ferret now seems possible, since the black-footed ferret is nowthe first cloned endangered species native to North America. The black-footedferret was cloned, meaning that it has the same DNA as its parent. Normally,cloning is used to talk about the cells in a body duplicating as the bodygrows. But here, it means that there are two of the same species that areidentical. The cloned ferret, who has been namedElizabeth Ann, was cloned from a black-footed ferret that died more than 30 yearsago. The cells from the ferret were frozen to keep them preserved, untilrecently. Last year, they were turned into embryos, which is an unborn baby. Acompany who specialized in cloning pets was able to do the same with theblack-footed ferret and grow the embryos in another species of ferret.Elizabeth Ann will live in a conservation center with her siblings, who werealso cloned. Scientists hope that in the future, they will be able to clone amale black-footed ferret and save the species from extinction. For Wild Suzhou,I’m Ciana, thanks for listening and see you next time.