Cryogenics, the Freezing of Cells, is Helping Save Endangered Species

Over the past two decades, the San Diego Zoo, well-known for providing animals with naturalistic habitats and zoo-goers with unique encounters, has secretly achieved remarkable feats in the line of animal conservation.

How Cryogenics at the San Diego Zoo Helps Save Vanishing Species

(Photo: Jamshed Ahmad from Pexel)

The Frozen Zoo at San Diego can potentially offer the only chance for Northern White Rhinos to survive since it has already provided a second chance for some animals on the brink of extinction.

Unlike other zoos where penguins and polar bears can be seen, the San Diego Frozen Zoo is a cryobank of cells gathered from the tissue samples of endangered animals from across the globe. The storing of the genetic material of these endangered animals has led to the cloning of the undomesticated critically endangered Przewalski's horse back in 2020, an Indian Guar- a type of humpbacked wild fox in 2013, and a Banteng, a Southeast Asian cattle species in 2003, and more.

The San Diego Frozen Zoo has secretly been garnering tissue samples of endangered animals for over 50 years since its beginnings in 1972 by Kurt Benirschke, a biologist. Today, the zoo is the largest and offers the most diverse collection of its kind across the globe. It contains more than 10,000 living cell cultures, sperm, oocytes, and embryos representing almost 1,000 taxa, including an extinct species known as the po'ouli. The Frozen Zoo's leading site is at the Beckman Center for Conservation Research, duplicating samples at a secondary location.

According to the San Diego Zoo, the germplasm stored in their Frozen Zoo has the potential to help produce offspring when used for in vitro oocyte maturation, artificial insemination, fertilization, and embryo transfer. Stating that the successful artificial insemination of several pheasant species using cryopreserved sperm has rendered chicks in the past.

ALSO READ: Whale Shark Populations Mysteriously Decline, Here's Why According to Study

Why Do We Need Cryopreserved Germplasm?

Some scientists have stated that the biodiversity of life on the planet may fall by roughly a million species in the next century. Because of this, institutions such as the San Diego Frozen Zoo are becoming more critical.

Despite Frozen Zoo's achievements, it isn't the only group racing against time to save species. Nature's Safe, founded by Tullis Matson, also collects tissue samples from endangered animals to serve the same purpose.

Cryobanking receives little to no funding. Matson explains that the task is enormous and that no one person can do it independently. Stating that there are over a million species at risk, with the cryobank needing 50 different genetic samples from each animal equating to 50 million samples, that need five vials of each, totaling hundreds of millions of samples that need to be preserved and stored, reports GoodNewsNetwork

For many species on the brink of extinction, cryobanks are the only way to keep the species alive and give them a second chance to thrive in the world. Unfortunately, with all the funding and challenges these cryobanks face, it is a race against time to gather samples to ensure the planet's biodiversity remains resolute.