City zoo aims to save black-footed ferret the old-fashioned way
Organization focusing on breeding to avoid stepping on toes of U.S. cloning efforts
The ’80s are making a comeback again, this time in the form of a cloned ferret.
Born on Dec. 10, Elizabeth Ann is the first cloned black-footed ferret, an endangered species native to North American prairies. U.S. scientists brought Elizabeth Ann to life using the cells from Willa, another black-footed ferret, who lived more than 30 years ago.
“Although this research is preliminary, it is the first cloning of a native endangered species in North America, and it provides a promising tool for continued efforts to conserve the black-footed ferret,” said Noreen Walsh, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Mountain-Prairie region in a press release.
Scientists used cells from a long-dead black-footed ferret to avoid inbreeding as much as possible, which is crucial to repopulating endangered animals as it increases disease resistance, said Gabriela Mastromonaco, the director of conservation science at Toronto Zoo. It’s especially challenging considering that black-footed ferrets have a limited gene pool.
“When (black-footed ferrets) were brought into captive breeding in the late 1980s, there was only a handful of them left. And of those, not even 10 had bred,” Mastromonaco said. “The entire blackfooted ferret population today is based on these eight to 10 original founders.”
Just like the U.S. conservation centre that houses Elizabeth Ann, Toronto Zoo is part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan to repopulate black-footed ferrets across North America. Since 1986, more than 8,500 baby black-footed ferret kits have been born out of the program, 530 from Toronto Zoo. There are currently 21 black-footed ferrets at Toronto Zoo.
To avoid overlap with U.S. scientists’ black-footed ferret cloning efforts, the Toronto Zoo is focusing on cloning endangered cattle species instead, including embryos from wood bison. They’re banking the embryos for now as they’re still researching how to produce healthy offspring from them.
As for black-footed ferrets, the Toronto Zoo will stick to their decades-old practice of breeding kits and reintroducing them to the wild. And according to Mastromonaco, in light of COVID-19, zoo personnel are cognizant of black-footed ferrets’ susceptibility to coronaviruses and wear PPE while handling them.
But even before the pandemic, they’re often in “a quarantine situation,” said Mastromonaco. Although they’re as cute as domestic ferrets, they’re far from cuddly — they don’t like being handled and will likely nip at anyone who tries.
In the wild, black-footed ferrets prey on prairie dogs and cottontail rabbits. The absence of this tiny but mighty predator greatly disrupts our ecosystems.
“Everything out there is interconnected and when you take out a key player, then you disrupt the rest of the players,” said Mastromonaco. “It’s one of the reasons why there’s so much effort put into reintroduction of black-footed ferrets.”
Mastromonaco stresses the importance of individuals making environmentally conscious decisions, such as avoiding single-use plastics as much as possible. “Together, as a whole, we can have greater impact, even in a species that seems so far away, like the blackfooted ferret.”
Enthusiasts can also “adopt” a blackfooted ferret to help fund the zoo’s conservation efforts.