FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Elizabeth Bennett, PhD, elizabeth@reviverestore.org
SAUSALITO, CA — APRIL 2, 2025 — Wildlife conservation nonprofit Revive & Restore has published a landmark study in the peer-reviewed journal Animals that provides the first complete history of animal cloning and underscores its viability as a conservation tool. The paper, titled “Towards Practical Conservation Cloning: Understanding the Dichotomy Between the Histories of Commercial and Conservation Cloning” represents the most comprehensive analysis ever conducted on the topic, documenting all 56 species and subspecies successfully cloned to date. For conservation organizations and funding agencies, the study’s conclusions offer a clear path forward: strategic investment in cloning can provide unique genetic diversity management capabilities.
This comprehensive review affirms that cloning is not an experimental futuristic technology, but a proven methodology ready for conservation application. The study’s findings overturn decades of misconceptions about clones’ short lifespans and infertility. In fact, clones not only reached adulthood, but most often met or exceeded natural life expectancy for 90% of species analyzed in the study. Significantly, of those reporting fertility results, 95% were fertile. These insights were only possible thanks to the field-building work of dozens of conservation-cloning scientists. These many scientists not only pioneered the field since the early millennium, but freely shared both the scientific and sociopolitical factors that shaped their efforts as well as the long-term unpublished results of the lives of their clones to be presented for the first time in this review.
“The history of cloning is surprisingly diverse and truly impressive” said Ben Novak, the paper’s lead author and Lead Scientist at Revive & Restore. “For years reviewers have looked at only a piece of the picture and decided that cloning isn’t ready for meaningful conservation, but the whole picture tells a different story – cloning is already being used for impactful conservation and could be explored for many more species.”
From 1957 to 2025 a total of 56 species and subspecies, spanning 33 mammals, 14 amphibians, 8 fish, and 1 insect, have been cloned by nuclear transfer methods whereby the pronucleus (DNA) of an egg cell is removed and the DNA of a donor cell is inserted, producing an embryo that is genetically identical to the DNA donor. Graphic: Ben Novak
The study identified a self-perpetuating cycle that has hindered progress in cloning for wildlife conservation: limited funding forces small-scale, “one-off” studies, which create the perception that wildlife cloning is exceptionally challenging, in turn discouraging stakeholders from investing in the technology—further restricting available funding. The first true applied-conservation cloning programs of the black-footed ferret and Przewalski’s horse, along with this paper, are evidence that this cycle can and should be broken.
“This technology can benefit species in the present in ways no other tool can. We must move beyond one-off efforts” said Robert Wiese, of North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, co-author on the paper. “The birth of the first cloned Przewalski’s horse and black-footed ferret in 2020 were incredible moments, and little did we know the continued work in these programs would prove to be a turning point for the history of conservation cloning as a whole”.
About Revive & Restore
Revive & Restore is the leading wildlife conservation organization promoting the incorporation of biotechnologies into standard conservation practice. The Sausalito, California nonprofit was formed in 2012 with the idea that 21st century biotechnology can and should be used to enhance genetic diversity, build disease resistance, and facilitate adaptation. Its mission is to enhance biodiversity through the genetic rescue of endangered and extinct species. In 2020, with partners including San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and ViaGen Pets and Equine, Revive & Restore pioneered the world’s first true applied conservation cloning programs to aid the recovery of the endangered Asian Przewalski’s horse and North American black-footed ferret.
