Scientists in the USA cloned Przewalski's horse for the first time in history. The colt named Kurt was raised from cells that were frozen back in 1980.
As noted in the press release of the San Diego Zoo, Kurt's task is to enrich the gene pool of Przewalski's horses, which originate from only 12 individuals and suffer from the consequences of inbreeding.
According to experts, cloning is one of the most promising methods of preserving rare species. Some experts even hope that in the future this technology will allow to revive animals that have disappeared due to human fault, for example, mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) or migratory pigeons (Ectopistes migratorius).
For now, we are only talking about individual experiments, which does not prevent the emergence of new projects working in this direction.
Specialists from the San Diego Zoo decided to use cloning to support the population of Przewalski's horses (Equus (ferus) przewalskii). These animals from the steppes of Central Asia are considered to be the only wild (rather than feral) horses that have survived to modern times. Unfortunately, by the middle of the XNUMXth century, this species completely disappeared and was preserved only thanks to breeding in zoos. Captive breeding helped save Przewalski's horses from extinction, and now they are being reintroduced into the steppes of Eurasia and Russia.
However, it brought a new problem: all currently living representatives of the (sub)species originate from only 12 individuals, so the genetic diversity of the population is very low. This can reduce the success of reproduction and survival of animals.
