Bucardo (Pyrenean Ibex)

In 2003 something amazing happened.  A group of scientists were looking straight into the eyes of something that had absolutely no business being there.  The bucardo went extinct in 2000, IUCN chalked up another tally to the extinction side and things went on.

However, 3 years later there one laid, breathing, processing, living.

The bucardo was a species of ibex, a descendent of goats.  The species graced the Pyrenean Mountains, which is what naturally separates France from Spain in Southwest Europe.  Like other species of ibex, the bucardo was very good at climbing, scaling and balancing narrow ledges.  This is perfect for the types of plants that grow on mountain sides, as we are learning in Pleistocene Park, mammals are crucial for the development and health of herbivory.  We are learning more and more about how mammals disperse seeds, fertilize soil, and what their importance is in germinating and shaping seeds.

It is believed that this once abundant species was effected by human hunting and the decline of resources for humans livestock in the region.

When the numbers of the species started to dwindle critically low, Dr. Jose Folch and his team from the Centre of Food Technology and Research of Aragon started to collect tissue samples of the bucardo.  They would set traps in Ordesa National Park in Spain and carefully obtain cells from the ears of the dainty creature.

The last remaining species was a female named, Celia.  Celia was found dead and crushed beneath a fallen tree on January 6, 2000.  So, the species went extinct right under that tree, right on that day.  By definition, January 6, 2000 would be the last day the planet ever saw a Pyrenean ibex, or bucardo.

Advanced Cell Technology is a company with labs in Massachusetts and following the death of Celia, they teamed with Dr Fernandez-Arias, Dr. Folch, and their affiliated organizations to clone Celia.

They would do this by nuclear transfer.  This is the same process that cloned Dolly the Sheep back in 1996.  They would hollow out the nucleus of an egg and then insert the nucleus of Celia’s cell and put it in the enucleated egg.

All good and fine, however, one problem…

Where is this egg coming from?

Since, the species is extinct, the living unfertilized egg of a bucardo is surely impossible to find.  What the scientists did was breed hybrids of other species of bucardos and domestic sheep, they then obtained the eggs of bucardos, domestic sheep, and the new hybrids.  These were the eggs used for the nuclear transfer cloning.

In fact, Dolly’s egg donor was not even of the same species as her.  Dolly was a Finn-Dorset domestic sheep, but the egg her nucleus was transferred to was from a Scottish Black-faced.  Dolly was born a genetic clone of the Finn-Dorset sheep her nucleus was borrowed from.

One of these things is not like the other

Even tough we have had successful clones, the science behind nuclear cloning is still developing and progressing.  The odds of having a living offspring is incredibly slim.  285 nucleus’ were transferred to create embryos and of that there was only one egg that went from embryo and was carried term to birth.

It was carried to birth.

An extinct animal was born

…and on that day extinction was not forever.

^Members of the team posing with Celia after obtaining tissue cells.  (Her eyes were covered for protection!)

Results

The clone Celia sadly died after only about 10 minutes due to severe lung defects.  Again, this is a very tricky and inaccurate science.  However, this was the first attempt at cloning an extinct species and we do have examples of other clones that have survived much longer. And as mentioned above, the field is getting better and more efficient at the science as we learn more.