For a short time, The Pyrenean ibex (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica) has been brought back into existence. This subspecies of Spanish ibex was declared extinct almost 10 years ago, until scientists cloned a single animal, but the clone died shortly after birth from complications. Cloning a type of wild mountain goat isn’t exactly Jurassic Park, but some folks believe cloning technology can develop into an effective tool to protect species from extinction by supplementing critically endangered populations and bringing back extinct species in an effort to save or recreate nature. Just like the famed seed banks, there are tissue banks that preserve precious genetic material of endangered animals.

According to one website: “The very last living Pyrenean Ibex was found dead on 6 January 2000 under a fallen tree in Ordesa National Park in Spain, [and] forest rangers in the Northeast of the country near the French border found the 13-year-old female with her skull crushed.” Extinction and the loss of biodiversity are expanding problems, as human development continues to intensify already existing habitat degradation, loss, and fragmentation. From the Telegraph.co.uk:

The Pyrenean ibex, a form of wild mountain goat, was officially declared extinct in 2000 when the last-known animal of its kind was found dead in northern Spain.

Shortly before its death, scientists preserved skin samples of the goat, a subspecies of the Spanish ibex that live in mountain ranges across the country, in liquid nitrogen.

Using DNA taken from these skin samples, the scientists were able to replace the genetic material in eggs from domestic goats, to clone a female Pyrenean ibex, or bucardo as they are known. It is the first time an extinct animal has been cloned.

Sadly, the newborn ibex kid died shortly after birth due to physical defects in its lungs. Other cloned animals, including sheep, have been born with similar lung defects.

But the breakthrough has raised hopes that it will be possible to save endangered and newly extinct species by resurrecting them from frozen tissue.

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But attempts to bring back species such as woolly mammoths and even the Dodo are fraught with difficulties. Even when preserved in ice, DNA degrades over time and this leaves gaps in the genetic information required to produce a healthy animal.

Scientists, however, last year published a near-complete genome of the woolly mammoth, which died out around 10,000 years ago, sparking speculation it will be possible to synthesise the mammoth DNA.

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A number of projects around the world are now attempting to store tissue and DNA from endangered species. The Zoological Society of London and the Natural History Museum have set up the Frozen Ark project in a bid to preserve DNA from thousands of animals before they disappear entirely.

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