Elizabeth Ann (born December 10, 2020) is a

black-footed ferret The black-footed ferret (''Mustela nigripes''), also known as the American polecatHeptner, V. G. (Vladimir Georgievich); Nasimovich, A. A; Bannikov, Andrei Grigorovich; Hoffmann, Robert S. (2001)''Mammals of the Soviet Union''Volume: v. 2, pt. 1 ...

, the first U.S. endangered species to be

cloned Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, c ...

. The animal was cloned using the frozen cells from Willa, a black-footed female ferret who died in the 1980s and had no living descendants. Black-footed ferrets are the only ferret species native to the United States. The black-footed ferret is one of the most endangered and rarest land mammals in North America; a small pack of them was found in Wyoming in 1981. The limited genetic diversity found among the pack put the species at risk. Scientists sent genetic material from Willa to

San Diego Zoo The San Diego Zoo is a zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, housing 4000 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies on of Balboa Park leased from the City of San Diego. Its parent organization, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, is a p ...

’s Frozen Zoo in 1988. Willa's egg was implanted in a surrogate domestic ferret in November 2020, to avoid putting an endangered ferret at risk. Elizabeth Ann was delivered via

c-section Caesarean section, also known as C-section or caesarean delivery, is the surgical procedure by which one or more babies are delivered through an incision in the mother's abdomen, often performed because vaginal delivery would put the baby or ...

on December 10. The efforts were led by Revive & Restore, a biodiversity non-profit. Elizabeth Ann will live in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

and be studied for scientific purposes; she will not be released into the wild.

References

2020 animal births Cloned animals {{Carnivora-stub