An endangered baby Sumatran orangutan born on Christmas Eve 2021
(Picture: AP)A zoo is cryogenically freezing DNA samples from endangered animals so they can be protected from extinction in the future.
Paignton Zoo in Devon will work with Nature’s Safe, one of Europe’s first living biobanks, which has so far frozen samples from 82 species at its laboratories.
Steve Nash from Wild Planet Trust, which runs the zoo, told Sky News: “It’s a really exciting opportunity and it really represents the diversity of roles that modern zoos, good zoos, can do,” said Steve Nash from Wild Planet Trust, which runs the zoo.
“For a lot of species, time is running out. We work tirelessly to conserve animals all the time - it’s what we do. But there are a lot of species for whom the challenges they face in the wild are particularly prescient.
“This acts as a safeguard for these species that we can conserve their genetic material for future use.”
With about 40,000 species facing extinction, the charity says it is a race against time to preserve the genetic data.
It came as thousands of animals from stick insects to white rhinos were tallied up for the annual stocktake at Marwell Zoo.
Keepers at the Hampshire conservation charity are required by law each year to complete an audit of the 2,500 mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates in their care.
Species such as Caribbean giant cockroaches and stick insects are counted in groups, but all others are recorded individually.
Among the latest arrivals to be included in the count is four-year-old white rhino Zahra, which was born as part of an endangered species breeding programme and has joined the zoo’s “crash” of rhinos.
