FUN WITH FROZEN FERRETS.

• Author: Bailey, Ronald
• Position: PHOTO

THE RIDICULOUSLY CUTE Elizabeth Ann made her debut in February as the first cloned black-footed ferret. She is the genetic twin of Willa, one of the last 18 wild ferrets captured in the 1980s for a captive breeding program overseen by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Willa never produced offspring, but after she died in 1988, her cells were cryopreserved at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance's Frozen Zoo.

As a resul to the USFWS's regular breeding program, nearly 300 black-footed ferrets now live in the wild. But all of those ferrets are dangerously inbred, since they are descended from just seven individuals. A genomic study revealed that Willa's genome possessed three times more unique variations than the wild population.

Back in 2013, the USFWS contacted the nonprofit Revive & Restore about trying to clone endangered ferrets. Revive & Restore, which promotes the use of modern biotechnologies to advance wildlife conservation...