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A cloned black-footed ferret named Antonia gave birth to three kits, two in good health, at the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia. Researchers hailed the breeding of Antonia, the first time a cloned US endangered species has produced offspring, as a “major milestone”. Antonia was cloned from a black-footed ferret named Willa whose tissue samples, collected in 1988 and preserved in San Diego’s Frozen Zoo, contained three times the genetic diversity of the current black-footed ferret population. Before Antonia reproduced, the existing species was descended from just seven surviving individuals. A more diverse population of black-footed ferrets, helped by clones like Antonia, will be crucial to their survival.
