The first clone of a black-footed ferret, Elizabeth Anne, was an important step in addressing the endangered species’ impoverished genetics. Starting with access to genetic material from just seven black-footed ferrets, the federal, state and private partnership that brought the species back from near extinction is now using cloning to grow the population and restore its genetic diversity.
The pioneering Elizabeth Anne is 4 now, and reportedly fat and happy.
“She’s leading the pampered life” at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center near Carr, Colorado, said Ben Novak. Novak is a program manager and lead scientist with Revive and Restore, a nonprofit that partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to clone the endangered ferret.
Since Elizabeth Anne was revealed to the world in 2020, Novak’s team — in coordination with Fish and Wildlife — has quietly produced two more clones: Noreen and Antonia.
There have been some challenges along the way. In 2022, Elizabeth Anne developed a uterine condition that prevented her from breeding that year. She underwent an ovariohysterectomy and made a full recovery.
Then, in a press release that was overshadowed by November’s election, the black-footed ferret genetic rescue partners announced a groundbreaking achievement in endangered species research: the first birth of black-footed ferrets produced by a cloned endangered species. The historic event took place at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia.
Antonia successfully gave birth to two healthy offspring after mating with Urchin, a 3-year-old male black-footed ferret at the Smithsonian’s facilities. It marked the first time a cloned U.S. endangered species has produced offspring, showcasing a critical step forward in using cloning to enhance genetic diversity in conservation efforts, the release reported.
The one-of-a-kind kits — the name for baby ferrets — are in good health and meeting developmental milestones under the care of the zoo’s carnivore keepers. Antonia and her kits will remain at the facility for further research, with no current plans to release cloned ferrets into the wild, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Ahead of its time
“This project represents a historic milestone in conservation history. For the first time, we can definitively say that cloning contributed meaningful genetic variation back into a breeding population,” said Ryan Phelan, Revive and Restore’s co-founder and executive director in a November press release. “As these kits move forward in the breeding program, the impact of this work will multiply, building a more robust and resilient population over time. We are excited to have been a part of changing the future of this species.”
The two kits were named Sibert and Red Cloud. If you haven’t noticed the naming convention, all of the cloned ferrets are named for characters and places in Willa Cather’s books. Red Cloud, for example, is the town in south-central Nebraska where many of her books, like “My Antonia” and “A Lost Lady,” took place.
Cather worked in the early 20th century and wrote about issues well ahead of her time. Red Cloud and Sibert were definitely ahead of their time in several ways.
“It’s actually somewhat of a kind of a miracle that Antonia [successfully bred], because a lot of first-year mothers don’t succeed in getting pregnant. A lot of first-year males don’t succeed in figuring out the process either,” Novak said. “It’ll be incredible if her kits have babies … this first year.”
In another win for the project, additional cell lines have been discovered preserved from conservation partners and through synthesizing DNA available at museums, adding new sources of genetic diversity. Also of note, a cell line saved by the San Diego Wildlife Alliance’s Frozen Zoo — the largest and most diverse collection of its kind in the world, containing over 10,000 living cell cultures, including extinct species — was collected from a male. “The males are more desirable because they can produce more babies in a lifetime,” Novak said.
The male used for cloning had died of canine distemper, a deadly disease to black-footed ferrets. To use his genetics, first the virus had to be stripped from his DNA. It’s a process that has taken more than five years, but is now complete thanks to help from ViaGen Pets & Equine, a company specializing in preserving genetic material. ViaGen produced all the clones for the breeding centers.
Federal uncertainty
The costs related to cloning the species is high, but have gradually been falling as the process has improved, Novak said. One of the ways they were able to supplement revenue in the past has been by obtaining some limited federal funding.
The project received a Federal Fish and Wildlife Service Recovery Challenge grant to continue work on genetic sequencing. However, that grant ended last year. Through partners, Revive and Restore is applying for another grant, but Novak doesn’t have high hopes for receiving funding due to the current political climate.
“I don’t even think there’s a point to try right now,” he said.
As the Trump administration continues to make deep cuts in federal agencies, few still employed workers are willing to speak about how reductions to programs have been problematic.
“I have been to meetings recently with federal employees. And there is, you know, there is visible stress,” Novak said.
Tina Jackson, former director of Fish and Wildlife’s black-footed ferret program, and two ferret care and husbandry employees were fired in recent downsizing efforts by the Trump administration. The cut equaled 25% of the center’s staff.
“It really shows how little care, thought and evaluation was put into these cuts by DOGE,” Novak said.
“They have a big population of animals, and we’re still working on saving this species,” he said. “There is a future where this species gets to be saved. That’s where our research comes in, and everyone else is on the genomic side of things. But we don’t get there unless the people caring for them in the facilities are able to continue to do their job.”
Novak wondered aloud if the folks on Capitol Hill are forgetting that government agencies were created over centuries to deliver important public services, “particularly the Fish and Wildlife Service and our games and parks departments at state levels.”
“We’re somewhat of a unique country in that wildlife is a public trust. It’s not owned by a landowner. Just because a deer runs on your land doesn’t mean it’s yours. If it’s a public entity, it only makes sense to have public institutions managing that wildlife,” he said.
With or without federal funds, Novak said, the project will continue.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct ViaGen’s name and clarify the company’s specializations. A photo caption also has been corrected to credit the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. —Ed.