Saving endangered species…one animal at a time

The list of endangered species just recently got smaller, or rather is on its way to getting smaller. Dr. Della Garelle, who works with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has been hard at work (along with many others) on saving a particular species of animal, cbsnews.com reports.

The list of endangered species is incredibly and shockingly high. This is just another problem the earth faces, and the issues that can lead to it are numerous—climate change being a big one, disease another, poachers and hunters yet another one, as well as so many others.

You can see the list of critically endangered species/animals, as well as those that are endangered and vulnerable at worldwildlife.org.

A specific species of ferrets are in terrible danger of extinction. What are scientists doing to reverse the terrible process and get them off the endangered species list?

Garelle, at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center, has been working on saving ferrets from possible extinction. The cause isn’t a new one. As it turns out and as the aforementioned source states, they’ve been at this a while.

It was reportedly in 1981 that the federal government got involved. They located a single colony which included 7 ferrets; breeding then began.

Many think of ferrets as household pets, and they of course are, but out there in the wild, they are a part of the very complicated ecosystem, every animal doing its part to make nature move along like a well oiled machine so to speak.

It was only ten years later that thousands of ferrets were released back into that sensitive ecosystem, but a lot went into this of course.

The problem though, was that ferrets can of course be susceptible to the elements, as many animals can—particularly disease, reports CBS—so certain precautions were taken to help the critters along on their way to ultimate survival apparently.

Enter Elizabeth Ann, she was the very first black-footed ferret to ever be cloned—yes cloned. She was produced from DNA from a ferret named Willa, who was around back in the eighties, when interest in protecting the species was first shown by the federal government; in fact her cells were frozen in the late eighties as it turns out.

The only issue now is that Elizabeth Anne, the aforementioned cloned ferret, is sadly incapable of reproducing despite the efforts from those involved in the cause. So what now?

Barbara Durrant, who is the director of reproductive sciences at the Frozen Zoo, had this to say on how they’ll be moving forward:

"“This is, in many cases, the only thing that’s going to help…Once the cells are here, they can be here indefinitely. So, it’s important that we get the cells now, and then we can work out the techniques for the future.”via CBS (link above)"

The discoveries this group of people have made are indeed huge despite these hiccups, and in the end the possibilities here are indeed endless, as the possibility of bringing back species that have already disappeared may now be an option.

I don’t know about you dear readers, but that makes me think of Jurassic Park, but for the founder of Colossal Biosciences, Ben Lamm, the possibilities are indeed endless. He has stated that in about 5 years, the very first woolly mammoth to be cloned can be here, in the flesh so to speak, but what about the long lost dodo?

Well, Beth Shapiro, a Paleogeneticist, warns:

"“If you’re willing to accept something that is similar to a dodo in some physical way, but not identical, we’ll get there a lot sooner than if you want something that is exactly like a dodo.”via CBS (link above)"

In the end, the sky seems to be the limit, and when science is used for such causes, it’s great to see. We, as well as the scientists involved, would just like to see a lot more funding thrown their way.