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Cloning Endangered Animal Species

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amyasleigh

Abominable Snowman
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Nov 3, 2009
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A light-hearted daft one here -- might have been newly discovered, or a cryptid, but wasn't... (I'd provide links to and / or reproduce the articles mentioned below, if I could; but such doings are beyond my abysmal computer skills.)

On a website which deals with a wide range of cryptozoological and "quasi-crypto" topics, I just lately saw a link to an article from the "Scientific American" for 14 / 11 / 2012. It tells of scientists in Brazil who are apparently fully equipped for a project to clone a number of endangered mammals of that country, and are just awaiting legal authorisation. The animals on their list are maned wolf, jaguar, black lion tamarin, bush dog, collared anteater, grey brocket deer, and...Brazilian aardvaark.

My first reaction was, "What??" Saw it stated later in the article, that "Brazilian aardvaark" is an alternative name for the coati (nasua nasua). Still found that hard to credit -- one would have trouble thinking of a less aardvaark-like mammal, than a coati... The first item turned up by Googling the strange name for the beast, was the Wikipedia entry on the coati; the second was an article from the Daily Telegraph for 21 / 6 / 2010.

The "Telegraph" piece was about alien / exotic fauna which have somehow got loose and are now living and breeding in the wild, in Britain: including a very small number of specimens of the coati, "otherwise known as the Brazilian aardvaark". The Wikipedia item, as above, lists as alternative "monikers" for the coati: Brazilian aardvaark, and an assortment of another half-dozen bizarre names. Wiki's footnote giving authority for the name "Brazilian aardvaark", reads (wait for it) "Telegraph co. uk". (And of the few other entries re "B.a' " turned up per Google, all were considerably more recent than 21 / 6 / 2010.)

I have a strong suspicion that this whole thing started off with a prankish journalist dreaming up a bonkers and inappropriate alternative name for an animal, slipping it into a factual article about exotic species living in the wild in Britain, and seeing what happened...
 
There's another article about the cloning in
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildli ... razil.html
(15.11.12.)

And the escaped animals in Britain (21.06.10) is still on theTelegraph website, here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildli ... finds.html

There are no Comments, so presumably nobody thought Brazilian aardvarks was too ridiculous!

And this page shows that Coati = Brazilian aardvark was on the web 15.11.2009, before the earliest Telegraph article!

http://askville.amazon.com/coatimundi-f ... d=62726583
 
Thanks rynner2 -- I stand corrected ! Somehow, though, the whole business rather gives "someone's having a laugh" vibes -- what with other alternative names for coatis being hog-nosed coons and snookum bears... likely it has to do in part, with memories of the delightfully zany radio humorous programme from the late 60s / early 70s, "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again" -- the team there seemed perpetually obsessed with aardvaarks, and were always on about them.

And I've learnt today, that "coatimundi" is a misnomer for the species in general: it applies only to a solitary adult male coati.
 
I'd never heard of Brazilian Aardvarks used for a Coati before either.
 
This thread is being established for discussion of cloning as an intervention to preserve endangered species.
 
Arctic Wolf Cloned

A Beijing-based genetics company has successfully cloned an Arctic wolf, in a ground-breaking move which could help preserve endangered species.

26 years after the birth of Dolly the Sheep, Sinogene Biotechnology unveiled the new wolf pup, named Maya to the world.

She had been born back in June, but the firm wanted to wait until she was 100 days old before they announced her to ensure the clone was in good health, Global Times reports.
Scientists created the pup by taking a donor cell from a wild female Arctic wolf which had been introduced from Canada and
combining it with an embryo grown inside a beagle, which shares genetic ancestry with ancient wolves.

The process, called somatic cell nuclear transfer, is the same process which birthed Dolly the Sheep back in 1996.

Arctic wolves, also known as ‘white’ or ‘polar wolves’, are not endangered like other wolf breeds because they live in isolation, although Singogen hopes this process can be used in future to save other species at risk of extinction.

Maya will likely have to spend her life in captivity due to her lack of socialisation, although she has been kept in good company by the beagle who birthed her who acts as her surrogate mother and playmate.
Click to expand...
1664050678399.png
 
hunck said:
Arctic Wolf Cloned

A Beijing-based genetics company has successfully cloned an Arctic wolf, in a ground-breaking move which could help preserve endangered species.

26 years after the birth of Dolly the Sheep, Sinogene Biotechnology unveiled the new wolf pup, named Maya to the world.

She had been born back in June, but the firm wanted to wait until she was 100 days old before they announced her to ensure the clone was in good health, Global Times reports.

View attachment 59262
Click to expand...
I know it's a scientific breakthrough and all that, but.... all I can think of is 'awwwwww'.
.
 
Coal said:
I wonder how a single social wild animal is going to manage on its own.
Click to expand...
It will more than likely grow up with other socialised wolves.
 
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