The first endangered species native to the U.S. is cloned and last updated 2021-03-01 15:56:51-05 Conservation in the United States took a big step recently when U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFW) announced it had successfully cloned the first endangered species native to North America: the black-footed ferret. USFW announced the cloning on Feb. 18, saying it had cloned a new ferret, Elizabeth Ann, from stored tissue taken from a black-footed ferret that died more than 30 years ago. âIt just brings hope,â said Kimberly Fraser, an outreach specialist for USFW. Black-footed ferrets were thought to be extinct until 1981 when a rancher in Wyoming found a body of a deceased one on his front porch. That rancher took the remains to a taxidermist, who alerted U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and for a few years, the population flourished, until disease wiped out all but 20 in 1987.