Black-footed ferret
The only ferret species native to North America, the black footed ferret has a fairly remarkable comeback story. In the mid-1980s, only 18 animals were known in the wild. The animals were then bred in captivity, and in 2021, one such ferret became the first animal cloned in North America. “Elizabeth Ann” became a symbol of increasingly modern approaches to conservation, especially as some groups begin to eye the cloning of extinct species like the dodo and the thylacine.
