A tribal-led nonprofit is creating a network of native bison ranchers that are restoring ecosystems on the Great Plains, restoring native ranchers’ connections with their ancestral land, and restoring the native diet that their ancestors relied on. Called the Tanka Fund, they coordinate donors and partners to help ranchers secure grazing land access, funds needed […]
Tag: Black-footed ferret
Despite Biotech Efforts to Revive Species, Extinction Is Still Forever
Iwas crouched on the ground, 50 feet from an aurochs. At least it looked like one. Eight generations of back-breeding had resurrected an animal reminiscent of the giant bovine that crashed from Earth’s biota in 1627. The coal-black beast had the forward-facing horns of the long-extinct aurochs. It had the same muscular shoulders and neck. […]
Endangered Cloned Ferret Gives Birth to Healthy Kits
A significant advancement in wildlife Conservation has been achieved with the birth of two healthy kits from Antonia, a cloned black-footed ferret. Antonia’s existence traces back to Willa, a genetically diverse ferret whose genetic material has been preserved since 1988 at the San Diego Zoo’s Frozen Zoo. Cloning Willa’s cells has offered hope for increasing […]
The Forest Service Gets a Slap on Their Prairie Dog Killing Plan
On the Thunder Basin National Grassland of northeastern Wyoming, the livestock industry has been pursuing an aggressive campaign to expand poisoning and shooting of prairie dogs. And in 2020, the Forest Service gave them a plan amendment that radically expanded prairie dog killing, and eliminated a special designation of a Black-footed Ferret Reintroduction Area to […]
Two Black-Footed Ferrets Successfully Cloned to Bolster Endangered Species Recovery Efforts
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has announced the successful cloning of two black-footed ferrets, Noreen and Antonia. Born last May, these ferrets represent a crucial step in the ongoing battle to save the critically endangered species. Utilizing tissue samples collected from a female ferret named Willa back in 1988, scientists were able to […]
The U.S. House of Representatives Declares War on Wildlife and the Environment
Can the second session of the 113th U.S. House of Representatives be any more harmful to wildlife and the environment than the first session of 2013? It appears that they can! On January 3, 2014, the U.S. House of Representatives convened to start its second session of the 113th Congress. By the end of the […]