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Years of effort to save a rare snake from extinction has led scientists to use frozen sperm, which has now produced three baby snakes.
The Memphis Zoo has achieved a world-first in reptile conservation by hatching three Louisiana pine snakes, one of the rarest species in North America, using frozen sperm and artificial insemination.
This achievement comes after five years of research and thirty years of experiments using the latest science, which proved the validity of the use of biobanks and assisted reproductive technologies in reptile conservation efforts.
“This achievement brings us one step closer to routinely incorporating assisted reproductive technology into reptile conservation to preserve genes and save the species,” Beth Roberts, chief reproductive scientist at the Memphis Zoo, said in a statement.
The Memphis Zoo collected, froze and thawed semen to artificially inseminate female Louisiana pine snakes, IFL Science notes.
The resulting offspring, which were confirmed to be the offspring of the donor male through genetic testing, set a new precedent in reptile conservation, scientists said.
“We see this success as a major step forward to enable future efforts to improve the genetic health of this and other threatened reptile species,” said Dr. Tonya Schwartz, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Auburn University.
The biobank brings new hope for reviving endangered species.
Cryopreservation or biobanking is an emerging field of conservation resulting from recent technological advances in reproductive science, IFL Science reports.
Scientists preserve the components needed to produce offspring, such as sperm, eggs and even skin cells, to save endangered species.
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