• Question: how come when we brought back Pyrenean ibex it died straight away?

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      Asked by makin bacon to Alex, Anaïs, Peter, Sarwat, Shreesha on 11 Mar 2015.
      • Photo: Alexander Henderson

        Alexander Henderson answered on 11 Mar 2015:

        Cloning animals is no easy task. You need very good samples of the previous animal’s DNA for the process. DNA can get damaged in storage and by other factors. So trying to reproduce an animal with DNA samples often results in complications for the animal – because the DNA is not perfect. Dolly the sheep, another animal cloned by scientists, died early and of simple reasons to pyrenean ibex.

      • Photo: Shreesha Bhat

        Shreesha Bhat answered on 12 Mar 2015:

        Perhaps the cloning technology we have still needs improvement, particularly to counter the complications involved in the process, like the lung complications in case of Pyrenean ibex.

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