They used to roam right across the Great Plains of America , hunting the prairie hotdog that made up the vast majority of their dieting . But in the former eighties , the smuggled - footed ferret was reduced to just a few dozen individuals and so the decision was made to take them all into captivity and get going a breeding program . It got to the head where there were only 18 in universe , so alongside breeding the ferret conventionally and using insemination of fresh semen , the choice was also hire to freeze some of the stay on Male ' spermatozoan .
Fast forrard 20 years , and scientist fromLincoln Park Zoo , along with assist from many other institutions , havemanaged to successfullyinseminate females and bring forth kits , or baby ferrets , using the stock-still sperm cell from the long - dead males . This is seen as a decisive step in proving that frozen semen from critically endangered species can still be viable decade subsequently , and genetically lively in population that have become worryingly inbred as their bit have dwindle .
“ Our discipline is the first to provide empirical grounds that artificial insemination with long - stored spermatozoa is not only potential but also beneficial to the genetic multifariousness of an endangered species,”explainedDavid Wildt , lead generator of the paper published inAnimal Conservation . “ What we ’ve done here with the black - footed black-footed ferret is an excellent representative of how sperm saving can profit species convalescence program . ”
After being declare nonextant in the state of nature in 1987 , conservationists have managed to build up up the identification number of Mustela nigripes from the surviving 18 they held in captivity . It ’s remember the principal reason they petered out in the state of nature in the first property was due to the extensive prairie click ascendency put through by farmers who ’d settle on the Great Plains . The rodent are thought to contribute up to 91 % of the ferret ’s dieting , and so when its main quarry base was decimate , the ferret also suffered .
Since then , the ferret population has been managed extensively , andcurrentlythere are thought to be around 300 in captivity , with around 500 breeding adults that have been reintroduced into the wild at various web site in both the U.S. and Canada . This is despite having breed over 6,000 of the brute since 1987 . One of the major trouble confront the ferrets after being deign from just 18 somebody is inbreeding . This is why it is of import to freeze samples of spermatozoon from all possible breeding males , to maintain as much genic diverseness as potential .
“ Our determination show how of import it is to cant sperm cell and other biomaterials from rare and endangered beast species over time,”saysPaul Marinari , senior curator at theSmithsonian Conservation Biology Institute . “ These ' shot ' of biodiversity could be invaluable to next animal preservation efforts , which is why we must make every movement to collect , store and study these material now . ”
