Frozen Sperm Could Save Endangered Species

THE ENDANGERED SPECIES

Since the modern world has been making progress in technology and agricultural expansion, the natural world has steadily been shrinking. Greatest among natural victims are rain forests, which house so many precious animals. Today, there is a list that is a compendium of the most critically endangered species.

Conservationists battle daily to raise public awareness of the danger in losing a species, and stress the importance of getting involved in the conservation of threatened species. Reports are regularly released with scientific research regarding the status of each endangered population, and our collective efforts to save them.

NEWS WITH A NEW METHOD

In recent news, a press release was published on the 13th of August about a new method of conservation for endangered species. Using frozen sperm, the method came from scientists working in Lincoln Park Zoo, in Chicago, Illinois.

Around the same time, another press release was released to the public, citing research for this new method. The research can be viewed in the Animal Conservation which was also released the same day.

The new method involved using frozen sperm for later artificial insemination. The method was tested out on the endangered black-footed ferrets and thus far, the results have been successful.

THE RESULTS

The frozen sperm came from a ferret who has been dead for the past twenty years. Now, the sire has offspring to continue his line and steadily increase the ferret population.

Such successful results show that not only are frozen sperm a viable option for conservation efforts, but also that it is a viable, practical way to preserve the essence of these precious animals. Thus far, the results have been promising.

However, the concern of genetic diversity is still under consideration; With such a small population, researchers are worried about the degenerative effects of multi-generational inbreeding; namely, that the lack of genetic diversity according the research will impend the chances of pregnancies or conception and lead to malformation in offspring later.

The deceased ferret sire seems to be a key example of maintaining greater the chances of conception, by appealing to the dead animals, the problem of finding a wide enough scope of genetic diversity to avoid deficient offspring is assuaged. It goes to show how essential it really is for endangered species to maintain a bank of frozen sperm, especially for species with genetically thin and quantitatively small populations, like the black-footed ferrets.