Survival for some endangered species hinges on Frozen Zoo

By Julie Watson February 17 at 9:02 AM

Whenever an endangered animal dies at the San Diego Zoo, researchers race out, regardless of the hour, to remove its sperm or eggs, maybe a bit of ear or eyeball, and carefully freeze the cells in liquid nitrogen.

Today, the survival of the northern white rhinoceros and dozens of other species could hinge on the collection amassed over nearly 40 years that has become the largest gene bank of its kind: the Frozen Zoo. The icy vials may someday even be used in experiments to resurrect recently extinct animals such as the Hawaiian poouli bird.

The stainless-steel tanks hold the genetic material of more than 10,000 individual animals from more than 1,000 species and subspecies.

The Frozen Zoos work has taken on renewed urgency since the San Diego Zoo Safari Park lost 42-year-old Angalifu to cancer in December, leaving only five northern white rhinos in the world and all unable to reproduce.

Scientists are racing to find the best way to utilize the banks frozen sperm to produce another one before the northern white goes extinct, which could happen within a decade.

Critics question whether its worth spending millions of dollars on species that are down to so few.

The bank is valued as a genetic archive that has helped advance artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, cloning and stem cell technology. But debate is stirring over how far such research should go.

The Frozen Zoo is basically rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, said Paul Ehrlich, a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.

He noted the world needs to address the problems root causes, such as population growth and climate change.

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Survival for some endangered species hinges on Frozen Zoo