The Frozen Ark
To help conserve the genetic diversity of threatened species, recovery programs have started freezing tissue samples from a wide range of individuals to create a gene bank. This is an attempt to provide an insurance against future catastrophes that would further reduce those critically threatened populations. Many programs are also considering the use of cloning in the future, but in most cases there is no intention to attempt cloning yet.
The Frozen Ark is the world's first DNA bank that attempts to preserve threatened animals by keeping their genetic material for future scientific research.
The Frozen Ark is collecting DNA samples from all kinds of species and storing them in liquid nitrogen at –196 degrees Celsius, where they should survive intact for many hundreds, and possibly thousands of years.
Priority is given to species most in danger of extinction. The first seriously threatened animals to enter the Frozen Ark were the yellow seahorse, scimitar-horned oryx, Socorro dove and polynesian tree snails. The Ark currently contains samples from 119 species, including those listed as vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered and extinct in the wild.
The Frozen Ark is supported by the Natural History Museum UK, the Zoological Society of London and the Institute of Genetics at the University of Nottingham, UK and has links with institutions around the world.
To read more: http://www.frozenark.org/
http://www.australianfrozenzoo.com/
Wombat goes onboard the Ark
EPA Queensland
In Australia, the first project for the Frozen Ark has been the northern hairy-nosed wombat, a strong, well-built marsupial weighing up to 40 kilograms and measuring more than one metre long. Although it looks slow and clumsy, it can move at up to 40 km/hour over short distances.
By the late 1960s, the only remaining population of the great northern hairy-nosed wombat was found in 16 square kilometres in Epping Forest in central Queensland. This is still the only known population, now contained within an area of only three square kilometres. It is estimated that about 113 animals are left and it is feared that if a fire went through the forest, they would become extinct overnight.
Researchers have frozen 40 cells from 40 animals. They are now looking at the reproductive biology of the common wombat and wondering if they could perhaps clone tissue from the great northern hairy-nosed wombat, to eventually — over three or four generations — reproduce the threatened animal.
This procedure has already been done in America. Cells from an extinct cow species (gaur) were implanted into a common cow to produce a gaur calf. This was a difficult and costly process and the calf did not survive, highlighting that there is no guarantee of success.
Many conservationists are concerned that cloning may be seen as the easy way out, compared with attempting to solve the problems caused by increasing human population and the destruction of native plant and animal habitats.
Others say that there is no point cloning native species, if there is no habitat to return them into. Most acknowledge that cloning is not a replacement for maintaining habitats, but it can be seen as a supportive measure.
Regardless of cloning, the collection of the animal and plant genetic material forms a useful knowledge store. The benefits will no doubt be seen in the future.
Deciding on support for conservation programs - work sheet [PDF 32kb | 3 pages]
Try bringing back an extinct species through cloning – interactive