for the first time scientists have cloned an animal on the u.s endangered species list that adorable little beast is elizabeth ann two-month-old black-footed ferret lives at a breeding facility in fort collins researchers are trying to bring her kind back from the verge of extinction and they're hoping that she can be proof that cloning can help it's quite an accomplishment to have an additional opportunity like this so anything we can do to give ourselves a little boost to deal with all the challenges that ferrets have both in captivity and the wild we want to take advantage
of elizabeth ann is a genetic replica of willa a ferret that died in 1988. willis tissue was preserved for decade decades at the san diego zoo and biotech groups in the u.s fish and wildlife service worked together to clone her researchers in fort collins will follow elizabeth anne's development to ensure that she grows up to be a normal black-footed ferret doing normal black-footed ferret stuff eventually elizabeth ann and her descendants will start a new bloodline that hopefully will expand and protect her species good luck kid we'll be right back