2023-10-12 21:39:00
Escondido, California.- Kurt, is the first of two Przewalski horses that were cloned in the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance of the San Diego Zoowhich is located in the Safari Park of this city.
“One individual is a female, the one with the short tail, and the other is the male that was produced thanks to the use of advanced technology and genetic samples that we have kept in the Frozeen Zoo from a male that existed forty years ago,” explained Cynthia Steiner.
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The associate director for conservation genetics San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance He highlighted that the male is the replica of an animal that existed four decades ago, whose idea is that this specimen reintroduces genetic biodiversity into new populations.
Kurt is in a youthful stage.
Use of new technologies
“He Wildlife It is trying to use new technologies, not just the traditional ones of conversation biology, which is the maintenance of the habitat and having animals in captivity for reproduction.
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“We are trying to use technologies to increase the genetic variability of endangered animals and they will be more resistant to climate change,” Steiner said.
Los Przewalski horses They are not domestic horses, they are wild, and the idea is that Kurt only develops his natural behavior accompanied by Holly, the female who was born in February 2023.
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Photos: Roberto Delgado
Kurt is in the youth stage
Kurt is in a juvenile stage, his maturity does not yet allow him to be with the rest of the horses, that is why he is isolated in the Safari Parkbefore becoming an adult and dominant male.
“Now he is three years old, when he turns four years old, the idea is that he becomes a mature, reproductive horse, and at that time the necessary planning will be made to be able to reproduce him,” explained the director.
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But Kurt is not the only experiment brewing in the Frozen Zoo(frozen room), of the Safari Park, More than a thousand different species are waiting inside the room.
“They are represented in more or less ten thousand samples of genetic material that are in tanks with liquid nitrogen, all the samples that are cells that come from the skin of wild animals are at minus one hundred and sixty degrees Celsius,” he stressed.
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These cells are a living material, which is not DNA, is not blood or tissue, and they can be used to reconstitute the genetic variability of the species via processes such as cloning.
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