For the first time in history, scientists managed to clone a wild Arctic wolf. Sinogene Biotechnology, the Beijing-based gene company, has released a video of Maya 100 days after she was born in the lab.
Maya’s donor cell came from a skin sample of a wild Arctic she-wolf. The egg came from a female and the surrogate was a beagle, according to reports.
The world’s first wild cloned Arctic wolf has been revealed via video by a Beijing-based gene sequencing company 100 days after its birth. Cloning technology, according to experts, makes it possible to reproduce rare and endangered animals. In order to save the endangered species, the scientists started a research collaboration in 2020 to clone the Arctic wolf. After two years of painstaking work, the Arctic wolf was successfully cloned.
The team of scientists built more than 130 new embryos from enuclear eggs of a bitch and somatic cells of a wild Arctic she-wolf. They then transferred more than 80 embryos to the uterus of seven beagles, one of which was born from a healthy wolf. Global Times reported that a beagle was chosen because it shares genetic ancestry with ancient wolves and is more likely to succeed thanks to cloning technology.Scientists Clone the first Wild Arctic Wolf and call it Maya
Maya is now living with her spare beagle, and after it will be delivered to the Harbin polar region in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang and made available to the public, the report says.
Experts say that the improvement of this cloning technology will help in the breeding of rare and endangered animals.
Although May’s successful birth is something to celebrate, environmental activists also warn that the idea of cloning wildlife should not raise false hopes.
Programs for cloning and breeding in captivity can stimulate wild populations and provide genetic diversity, which is essential for the survival of species, but efforts still need to be made to protect the integrity of wildlife habitats to prevent them from reaching the brink of extinction in the first place.
