Cloning makes three: Two more endangered ferrets are gene copies of critter frozen in 1980s

By MEAD GRUVER
Associated Press

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says two more black-footed ferrets have been cloned from the genes used for the first clone of an endangered species in the U.S. These three slinky predators are genetically identical to a single animal frozen back in the 1980s. The first black-footed ferret clone has not successfully bred but the two new females named Noreen and Antonia raise hopes of creating more genetic diversity. Black-footed ferrets were thought extinct until a Wyoming ranch dog found one in 1981. Conservationists then found seven more, and all black-footed ferrets known to be alive today are descended from that small group.