Researchers in China have cloned wolf wild arctic. They hope their genetic technology can be used to save other endangered species.

On Monday, Beijing-based company Sinogene Biotechnology unveiled a female wolf clone. The animal was named Maya by scientists, marking 100 days since its birth on June 10.

Maya, a gray-brown pup with a fluffy tail, is in good health, the company said. During the press conference, they show videos of Maya playing and resting.

“After two years of strenuous efforts, the arctic wolf has been successfully cloned. This is the first such yield in the world,” said Mi Jidong, general manager of the company, according to Chinese state media. . CNNThursday (22/9/2022).

The arctic wolf, also known as the white wolf or polar wolf, is a subspecies of gray wolf native to the Arctic tundra in the Arctic Islands of northern Canada.

Its conservation status, an extinction parameter, is considered low risk because its arctic habitat is far enough away to escape poachers, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

But climate change is increasingly threatening its food supply, while human developments such as roads and pipelines are encroaching on its territory.

Sinogene has launched an arctic wolf cloning project in 2020, in collaboration with Harbin Polarland polar amusement park, it said in a statement posted on Twitter-like platform Weibo.

To create Maya, the company used a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer. The same technique was used to create the first mammalian clone, Dolly the Sheep, in 1996.

First, they used skin samples from native Arctic wolves to collect donor cells which were then injected into eggs from female dogs and carried by surrogate mothers.

Scientists were able to create 85 of these embryos, which were transferred into the wombs of seven beagles. They result in the birth of a healthy arctic wolf.

The company said in its Weibo post that a second cloned arctic wolf is expected to be born soon.

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