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Article: CLONING Hit or Miss?(first attempt at cloning to preserve an endangered species fails as the wild Asian ox calf died in two days)
- Article from:
- Science World
- Article date:
- March 26, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Scholastic, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Some scientist want to save endangered species by genetically duplicating them. But will this risky process work?
Last January, an ordinary Iowa milk cow named Bessie delivered a healthy baby gar, or rare wild Asian ox, named Noah. Talk about separated at birth--was this some freak of nature? No, Noah became the first endangered species ever to be cloned, or genetically duplicated, and carried to term in the womb of another species.
Scientists were elated by Noah's birth. After gradual destruction of gaur habitats in the bamboo jungles of Southeast Asia, only about 36,000 of the oxen remain in the wild. Could cloning Noah signal a new strategy to rescue ...