remaining animals are forced to inbreed and the Official yellowstone dutton ranch Montana T-shirt and I love this genetic pool shrinks, further threatening survival. But the cloned Black-footed ferrets, for example, were born in 2020 from samples collected in 1988, which meant that their genetic profile was much more varied than the current population. “In a species of animals, the genetic diversity is what gives it its resilience, its ability to bounce back from natural catastrophes, virus attacks, disease attacks. That’s because if there are more different types of genetics in a species, there is a higher chance that some will survive,” explains Brendon Noble, a professor of regenerative medicine at the University of Westminster in London and chair of the board at The Frozen Ark, a UK-based animal cryobank. ‘Apathy is one of our biggest problems’: Ocean photographer Shawn Heinrichs wants to save the seas The Frozen Ark was founded in 2004, with a similar intent to the Frozen Zoo but with a different structure: rather than a single collection tied to one institution, it is a distributed network of over two dozen institutions such as zoos, museums and universities spread all over the world, each sharing its own collection and knowledge. While
the Official yellowstone dutton ranch Montana T-shirt and I love this Frozen Ark has more samples than the Frozen Zoo — 48,000 from 5,500 species — about 90% of them are made up of DNA rather than live cells, which are used differently and must be stored at much lower temperatures. DNA samples can’t be used to clone an animal but are essential to capture the genetic blueprint of species that might disappear. “That information can be used for a whole range of different scientific studies, from cancer research to understanding recovery processes such as limb regrowth,” says Lisa Yon, an associate professor of zoo and wildlife medicine at the University of Nottingham and a scientific advisor at the Frozen Ark. “By saving these resources we will allow not only current scientists, but future generations of scientists to make all kinds of new discoveries.” At San Diego Frozen Zoo, samples are kept in cryotanks. “The collection is duplicated; periodically we take samples out and move them to another facility, so that all of the cells are not in one place,” says Oliver Ryder. A cell by any other name Freezing cells involves a more delicate process than with DNA, to avoid the formation of ice crystals when cells are frozen to -320 degrees Fahrenheit (-196 Celsius). Different cells require different freezing procedures, too; for example, amphibian cells are difficult to freeze properly and therefore are severely underrepresented in cryobanks. And some of
