Have you ever wondered what happens to an endangered animal after it dies over at the San Diego Zoo? Well, when an endangered animal dies they end up in the 'Frozen Zoo'. Scientists remove sperm, eggs, bits of tissue and store it in liquid nitrogen for later research with the hopes of bringing back rare and extinct organisms in the future. This is the largest gene bank of it's kind, with over 1000 species genes stored inside. An example of one crucial species is the Northern White Rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) - with only 5 left alive in the world - that they plan use artificial insemination with 'frozen' sperm to restore populations. This method has already proven successful with the Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca).
I found this article to be very interesting because I'm an advocate for conservation and preservation of species for future generations to appreciate. However I'd imagine that there is only so far this kind of research could go because with so little of many species still alive to collect sperm and egg from, eventually the problem of a lack of genetic variation would arise. Interesting none the less!
I never thought such a thing actually existed - only in science fiction (immediately thought of Jurassic Park). This seems like a very interesting and amazing idea to bring back these species. I do agree with you, there are only so many of organisms in these endangered species. For example, the white rhino with only 5 alive - even if they do succeed, the gene pool is very small
ReplyDeleteI also had never heard of this and I think that this is just the most interesting concept. The animals' DNA being stored for future use is really great and could probably be very beneficial. As for not having many samples to use and store since there are few animals left of certain species that does create a problem. Hopefully the scientists could just start to take samples from different animals that are not endangered. That would certainly solve the problem. I hope that they can collect more and more samples from all kinds of animals.
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ReplyDeleteI immediately thought of jurassic park as well! This type of technology can probably be used in DNA research of many animals, including humans - for studies on diseases, inheritance, and the like.
ReplyDeleteWow this is incredible! I am concentrating in animal science and I always wondered what happened to endangered animals after they pass. Hopefully technology will become advanced enough to regenerate these species and study things we can't now.
ReplyDeleteI am so happy to have read this blog post. People always talk about saving endangered species so I am glad there are efforts being made to save these animals. The fact that animals can be saved so close to extinction is an amazing thing. I consider myself a conservative as well, and I agree it can only go so far but hopefully when it has reached its end, a new way of saving these endangered species will be discovered.
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