San Diego Zoo Global had recently announced the unique birth of a takhi, an endangered species of wild horses. Also known as Przewalski's horse, it is the first successful clone from a takhi that the zoo had in 1980.
Przewalski's horses have distinct muscular bodies smaller than modern-day domestic horses. Their coat is typically beige or reddish-brown with a pale belly. It is short during the summer, but grows thicker during cold winters.
The wild horse species used to roam freely in western Mongolia and northern China before their population declined. In the 1960s, they were officially extinct in the wild. By 2008, they were classified as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Early Conservation Efforts
Their near extinction has been associated with human activities such as habitat loss, hunting, and lack of water sources. To help preserve the species, takhis were captured, bred, and reintroduced in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and China.
In 2013, the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) had another approach in helping conserve the species via artificial insemination. After seven years of efforts, a Przewalski's horse named Anne gave birth to a healthy female foal.
Dolores Reed, a biologist at SCBI, shared that the Przewalski's horses need to be raised as if they lived in the wild. The institute did not want the horses to be tamed "to the point that they weren't Przewalskis anymore."
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Successful Cloning
The San Diego Zoo shared that the cloned takhi is key to the genetic diversity that would help the species survive. The cloned animal will later be moved to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, where it will live with a herd of Przewalski's horses and eventually breed.
Paul Baribaul from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park said that saving the endangered species of wild horses could only be done if dedicated partners collaborated and had the same goals. "We share in this remarkable achievement because we applied our multidisciplinary approach, working with the best scientific minds and utilizing precious genetic material collected and stored in our wildlife DNA biobank."
Forty years ago, the zoo cryopreserved the DNA of a male Przewalski's horse. The clone is named Kurt, after Dr. Kurt Benirschke, who created the world's first frozen zoo. Since 1975, he had been preserving the DNA of endangered animal species.
One of the zoos' partners is Revive & Restore, a wildlife conservation group that uses biotechnology in their conservation efforts. A second company is ViaGen Pets & Equine, which clones horses, cats, and dogs.
"This birth expands the opportunity for the genetic rescue of endangered wild species," said Ryan Phelan of Revive & Restore. Cloning and other reproductive technologies can restore genetic diversities that could have been lost years ago to save different species. Revive & Restore is also trying to revive several other endangered and extinct species, such as the Wooly Mammoth.
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