Extinct Ibex Resurrected by Cloning… then Goes Extinct Again
Scientists succeeded for the first time in achieving the holy grail of conservation: bringing to life an extinct animal through cloning. For seven minutes.
Just seven minutes after Spanish and French scientists brought the Pyrenean ibex back from extinction, the young animal died of lung complications also common to other cloned animals. And so an extinct species blinked into life for an instant and then flickered out again.
The success, albeit brief, is spurring scientists and conservationists alike to imagine some wild possibilities. Can extinct species–say, the dodo or even the wooly mammoth–be brought back into their natural habitats through cloning and if so should they?
The Pyrenean ibex, a species of Spanish mountain goat, was declared protected in 1973, but when the conservation plan to save the species was finally implemented in 1993 there were only 10 individuals left. The species went extinct in 2000 when the last known animal, a female named Celia, was found dead–killed by a falling tree. Critics might argue that we have no business bringing back the species from extinction, especially if the very last member of their species was hapless enough to be standing under a tree when it fell.
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But scientists still face considerable hurdles before bringing an extinct species back into the wild is anything more than a conservation pipe dream. Firstly, even if the cloned female ibex had lived, she would have had no males to breed with. On top of this, there are other questions about resurrecting extinct species: can enough genetic diversity be created in cloned individuals? How feasible is it to reintroduce locally extinct, captively bred animals back into an ecosystem? If the species is reintroduced, what would stop it from falling prey to the same dangers that made it extinct?
The brief birth of the ibex brought scientists a significant step closer to the seemingly impossible feat of bringing back a vanished species. It’s conceivable that someday this technology might hold the key to resurrecting a plethora of extinct and endangered species. Already, the The Zoological Society of London and the Natural History Museum are cateloging DNA samples of endangered species in what they are calling a ‘Frozen Ark.’ But until the species resurrection technology becomes a reality, conserving extant species is still so far our best hope. We may someday be able to bring a lost species back to life forever, but for now all we have is seven minutes.
[via: Telegraph]Image credit: Tambako the Jaguar via Flickr, under a Creative Commons license.
They did this back in the 90’s on some island I heard about. They cloned a ton of dinosaurs using frog dna. Then a greedy dude screwed over the island and the Dinosaurs started killing everyone. Not a good idea.
Awesome
Uh, this poses to many questions… and answers none. This also merges the paths of the evolutionists to closely with the Godists. Kind of like the missing link. Let’s just skip over this. Seems like Darwin (missing along with the link).. Or God (whatever your pleasure)may have put a timer on each species. Wonder what man’s is…Hmmmm
This sounds like a great idea to me!
Damn, now I want to watch Jurassic Park.
From a meta physics point of view, this could be scary. Lung problems in clones ehhh……forcing life to breath based on a copy paste system.
I wonder what cloning does to our conciousness?
They could make them small and cuddly and sell them as pets.
I can tell you how this will play out. Scientists will spend millions perfecting the technique and bring back the woolly mammoth, which will then be sold to a trophy hunter and shot. That’s how we treat the current nonextinct animals, why would anyone think humans would change their ways for the formerly extinct?
Dont these ppl know that the Island wont allow them to do it!!
What cloning does to our consciousness: Nothing. A clone is a genetic copy. It’s very unlikely that the memories or sense of ’self’ of the original cloned animal is transferred to the clone. However, since we haven’t cloned any humans (not saying we should or shouldn’t), we can’t really ask the clones to find out, eh?
I can’t understand why anyone would want to ’skip over this’. My guess is that the ibex reached the point of ‘protected status’ and then extinction because of man’s activity. If that is so, it’s hard for me to comprehend the argument that a species doesn’t have a right to live if it goes extinct — even though it was our own negligence as caretakers of this world that wound up putting it there in the first place.
I say clone as many as you can and try re-introduction. If the ecology can continue to support the critter, it might just give us a ’second chance’ to set things right.
I also find the idea of God setting a ‘timer’ on a species’ existence ridiculous. If he really felt that was the way to go - why would he give us the ability to reverse his mandate?