A New Cloned Horse Offers Hope for Endangered Species
18th November 2023
Russell is used to getting woken up for a late-night delivery. But this foal was special. It was a clone of a rare Przewalski’s horse, a now-endangered species that once roamed the grasslands of central Asia. Crouched in the corner of the barn stall, Russell waited for its birth with anticipation. “When I saw toes and nose, I thought, ‘Whew, this is going as planned,’” he recalls.
You might be surprised that cloned animals exist—they do, but the procedure is mostly used for domesticated animals. Russell’s company, ViaGen Pets, clones around 100 horses a year, as well as cats and dogs.
Yet the technology has rarely been used for endangered animals. Up until that moment, cloning had only successfully produced a single animal of any such species. The new Przewalski’s horse, born in February and still unnamed, is the second of his kind. He’s a genetic copy of the world’s first cloned Przewalski’s horse, Kurt, who was born in August 2020. Both were made from cells frozen more than 40 years ago at the San Diego Zoo. The scientists behind the effort say this second birth is evidence that cloning could be a viable strategy for saving endangered species.