Scientists clone endangered species.

* Scientists clone endangered species: In October 2000, scientists with the Massachusetts-based biotech firm Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) announced that they had successfully produced the first clone of an endangered species, a humpbacked, ox-like creature called the Asian gaur. The embryonic gaur, dubbed "Noah," is also the first cloned animal to gestate in the uterus of another species--an Iowa dairy cow named Bessie.

Noah's creators hope their success will be a springboard to wider use of cloning in conservation efforts. Like many proponents, they view the technology not as a way to "play God," but as a tool to boost species numbers and ultimately redress past human wrongs against nature. By introducing the genes of dead individuals back into the population, says ACT scientist Philip Damiani, cloning can actually increase genetic diversity in species that may be at risk of inbreeding or other collapse.

To create Noah, Damiani and his colleagues followed the same gene-transfer process used to produce the sheep Dolly in 1996. They removed the genetic material from one of Bessie's eggs and replaced it with a single skin cell--complete with DNA--from a recently deceased male gaur. The modified egg was nurtured into an embryo and later implanted in the cow's womb. She was expected to give birth in November.

A number of scientists question whether cloning can be of practical value to global conservation. They fear it could be perceived as a technical fix for curbing species loss, and that its use could lull the public and policymakers into complacency about protecting the living individuals that remain. At most, they argue, cloning should be recognized as only one of many existing conservation tools, and used when other efforts to head off extinctions have failed.

Some conservationists also worry that the resources poured into cloning efforts--like those lavished on other high-profile captive breeding projects--might be diverted from more cost-effective activities. "Elaborate methods of artificial reproduction are the equivalent of keeping a comatose and terminally ill patient alive on life-support--and almost as expensive," says Eric Dinerstein, Chief Scientist with the World Wildlife Fund. Like many biologists, he would rather see the money spent on ongoing efforts to preserve the few pockets of habitat where rare species are still able to reproduce on their own, without human intervention.

The ACT team and other cloning supporters counter that there is no competition for resources, because the money the biotech companies put up for cloning would probably not otherwise go to conservation. But this view fails to take into account the additional time, money, and biological expertise needed to eventually re-introduce the cloned animals into the wild.

The cloning controversy will likely only intensify as the biodiversity crisis worsens. Already, several ambitious new projects are in the works. Shortly after ACT publicized its success with Noah, researchers at India's Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad announced a $1 million effort to revive the Indian cheetah, which disappeared from the subcontinent in 1953. The scientists hope to create a replica within the next five years, using DNA from a remnant cheetah population in Iran. Meanwhile, California-based Cyberuni is backing projects to clone two other Asian rarities, the musk deer and the saola antelope. ACT, for its part, hopes to revive a recently extinct Spanish mountain goat within the year, then launch a panda cloning effort using North American black bears as the surrogate species.