Two healthy kits are doing well at the Smithsonian Institution's Conservation Biology facility in Port Royal, Virginia. They were born three weeks ago, This is a world first for a cloned animal, and a major step forward for conservation of species in general. Black-footed ferret (
Mustela nigripes). Antonia was cloned from frozen tissue samples of Willa, another endangered ferret at San Diego's Frozen Zoo. She was born last May with her sister, Noreen [photo] at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center in Colorado. Blackfooted ferrets were thought to be extinct by 1981, but later rediscovery started an intensive conservation efforts leading to reintroduction in the wild. For now, mom and the kits will remain in the Conservation Biology Institute for further study.
