Why isn’t animal cloning used to preserve endangered species?
In: Biology
To clone an animal, you need to get DNA from it, put that DNA into a viable egg, and put that egg into a healthy female’s uterus where it can gestate until born. It can have a success rate as high as 2% in species we understand super-well like sheep, and way way lower in less-studied and non-domesticated species.
At that point, you’re often better off just running a traditional breeding program.
Species are typically *not* endangered because they aren’t having babies enough (*critical side-eye at pandas*). They are endangered because the place they live is being destroyed, their source of food is being destroyed, people are hunting them too much, or increasing toxins in their environment or food.
*None* of those problems are solved by getting the animal to have more babies. Even if cloning were quick and easy – which, again, breeding programs outdo them a hundredfold – you’re just making more baby animals which will die quickly due to the *actual* problems that endanger animals.
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