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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/theres-hope-for-endangered-animals-at-the-frozen-zoo/>
"Nature conservationists and animal activists all over the globe have the cell
phone number of Marlys Houck in San Diego. “I keep my cell phone on the
nightstand, always on,” the trim, blonde researcher says. “I’m always on call.”
When researchers get the opportunity to tag some of the remaining 17 Vaquita
dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico, they ask Houck if she could cultivate and
preserve dolphins’ skin cells in her lab before the endangered dophins go
extinct. In 2012, when the last male Pinta Island tortoise, Lonesome George,
died at the age of 100, Houck flew to the Galapagos islands from California
with only 24 hours’ notice to harvest his cells. (She wasn’t allowed to take
them with her to the US, though. Due to the complex international laws of
exporting material from endangered species, she had his cells frozen in
Ecuador.)
At 61, Houck is at the forefront of a race against time. At the San Diego Zoo
Wildlife Alliance, she is the curator of the Frozen Zoo, the world’s oldest and
largest collection of living animal cell lines.
Animal populations have declined by an average of almost 70 percent since 1970,
according to the latest WWF Living Planet Report. Whether in the open ocean or
the rainforests, whether they analyzed birds, fish, amphibians, or reptiles,
the experts found that the abundance of wildlife is in freefall. More than
26,500 species are extinct or seriously endangered, and we lose another 60
species every day. Some of them, such as the Po’ouli bird or Black-faced
Honeycreeper, now only exist in the form of frozen cells in Houck’s cryogenic
tanks. Scientists believe we are living through the sixth mass extinction — the
largest loss of life on earth since the time of the dinosaurs. This time, the
extinction is driven by humans, and therefore conservationists argue that it is
also humans’ responsibility to do everything possible to reverse this trend.
This includes collecting and freezing the cells of endangered animals, hoping
we can revive their population in the future."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
