In the summer of 2024, in a quiet facility nestled in the grasslands of the US state of Virginia, two small ferret kits blinked into the world, unaware that their birth marked a global first. With dark eye-rings that resemble a bandit’s mask, the kits Sibert and Red Cloud are black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes), one of North America’s most endangered mammals. What sets them apart isn’t just their rarity, but their lineage: their mother, Antonia, is a clone.

Born in 2023, Antonia was created from the preserved cells of a female ferret named Willa, who died in 1988 without leaving ...

 

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