Meet “Elizabeth Ann.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday the successful birth of a cloned black-footed ferret. Scientists cloned Elizabeth Ann from a ferret that died 30 years ago. 

This cloning, which can understandably sound Sci-Fi, is an innovative conservation effort. The Fish and Wildfire Service says that all black-footed ferrets alive today are descended from just seven ferrets, meaning there’s a glaring dearth of genetic diversity in the endangered population. So adding new genes to the gene pool, by resurrecting cells of past ferrets, can introduce fresh genes into the population. Read more…

More about Cloning, Science, and Animals
Mashable