Groundbreaking: Cloned Ferret Makes Babies!

A cloned endangered black-footed ferret has successfully given birth to two healthy kits, a first in the United States and the world, giving a real chance for the small carnivore mammal’s population to increase and thrive.

“For the first time, we can definitively say that cloning contributed meaningful genetic variation back into a breeding population,” explains Ryan Phelan, co-founder and executive director of Revive & Restore, a partner in the cloning project. “As these kits move forward in the breeding program, the impact of this work will multiply, building a more robust and resilient population over time.”

Once with a population of one million, the black-footed ferret, also known as the American polecat, was presumed extinct in the 1950s. A wild population was found in 1964 – that group died, and a captive breeding effort failed – and another one in 1981, and innovative technologies like freezing semen and cloning were used on top of traditional breeding programs. Thousands of black-footed ferrets have been reintroduced across the western U.S. since the 1990s, but all descend from seven individuals. Limited genetic diversity is a significant hurdle in preserving any species. Genetic material from a female who had never been reproduced was collected in 1988 and used in 2020. Indeed, the 1988 preserved gene sample contained three times more genetic diversity than living black-footed ferrets. Cloning is becoming a real and concrete tool to maintain genetic diversity and save endangered species.