Written by Andrew-Rossi on February 23, 2021
A field of science once deemed science fiction has succeeded in giving one of Wyoming’s most famous endangered species another chance at life.
On Dec. 10, 2020, a black-footed ferret was born at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center in Colorado. An otherwise positive but unexceptional announcement from the conservation center.
The big news is that “Elizabeth Ann” wasn’t so much born as created. The ferret is a clone, an exact genetic copy of “Willa,” another ferret that lived and died three decades ago.
This is the first cloning of a native endangered species in North America.
Scientists have successfully cloned an endangered black-footed ferret using frozen cells from a long-dead wild animal, the first time any native endangered species has been cloned in the United States.
Elizabeth Ann's birth represents the first cloning of an endangered species native to North America and may bring needed genetic diversity to the species.
Reel Dad: Seven winter films to watch while it snows
Mark Schumann
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Since we can’t get a break from winter, let’s go to the movies!
Here are seven favorites that make snow a fundamental part of the story.
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Winter never looks better than in this lush interpretation of Boris Pasternak’s novel about life in Russia before, during and after the revolution. Despite the cold, Omar Sharif and Julie Christie heat the screen with a passionate romance that violates all the sensibilities of the period. The Oscar-winning cinematography and music score fill the screen with wonder.
REGIONAL â The Alameda Creek Alliance and Ohlone Audubon Society recently joined other environmental organizations in opposing the Aramis Solar Energy Generation and Storage project proposed for agricultural land in North Livermore, along Cayetano Creek. The Alameda Creek Alliance opposes the Aramis industrial solar plant, which is poorly sited. It would occupy land immediately adjacent to Cayetano Creek, which is designated as Water Management land under the Alameda County zoning code,â stated Jeff Miller, Alameda Creek Alliance president. âSolar projects are not permitted on Water Management land. The Aramis project would be detrimental for Cayetano Creek and set a bad precedent allowing further industrial-scale development next to creeks in other rural areas of Alameda County.