In the next 30 years, a quarter of Earth's known mammals are expected to go extinct, and over a tenth of the world's birds.  Species are declining at 1,000-10,000 times the rate of pre-human activities.  For many, the concern for these creatures is innate.  Some cite a moral obligation to saving them, some the logical benefits like medicine, knowledge, sustenance, basic appreciation, etc.  There are countless groups trying to help by tackling legislation, education, and some even...freezing?

In 2004, a charity project called The Frozen Ark Project was launched in the UK.  The group freezes DNA samples of endangered animals from all over the world as a safeguard in the event of their extinction.  Taken from zoos, captive breeding programs, and the wild, scientists at the Frozen Ark collect multiple DNA samples from preferably 15-20 individuals of a species from different geographic populations.  Unfortunately, you can't just pop them into an ice cube tray and call it good.  Cells contain so much water that they are prone to severe damage from crystallization during the freezing process, and therefore must be painstakingly replaced with cryoprotectant fluids.  They are then stored in liquid nitrogen at -70°C to -196°C (-373°F) allowing for viability up to 100,000 years.  If a 30,000 year old Woolly mammoth found in -10°C ice can still contain decent DNA integrity, imagine what a controlled environment can preserve.

All this begs the science fiction question: are we going to clone extinct animals?  Though cloning is not the goal, it is a possibility.  Currently, reproductive cloning is extremely unsuccessful (Dolly the cloned sheep was the 276th try), and even when an offspring survives to birth, there is a high early mortality rate.  Cloning extinct varieties is even more challenging because it requires a mother from another species to carry it to term.  But who knows what the future holds?  Decades of technology may lead to such paths as bringing back beloved species and patching ecosystems with cloning. Of course, before you have animals you need habitat, the loss of which is one of the main causes of extinction in the first place.  

So what can we do with all of these genes while we ponder the future?  How about trying to keep wildlife from disappearing in the first place?  The last line of defense for a dwindling population is captive breeding, a tricky science that DNA banks could aid.  Since the 1960s, captive breeding programs have been used to stabilize animals on the verge of extinction with achievements in the Arabian oryx, the California condor, and the Island fox.  Unfortunately, captive breeding is not without its problems, and reduced genetic variation is just one of them.  Animals with so few individuals lack genetic diversity to contribute to the recovering population.  This bottleneck can create all the problems of inbreeding, mainly increased susceptibility to disease, deformity, and reproductive issues.  If we collect samples now, we can have a stockpile of alternate genes for use in captive breeding should it become necessary.  

Gene banks can also be used to aid enforcement of illegal animal trade.  DNA from suspicious merchandise can be positively identified by comparing it to stored samples and used as evidence in a case.  A wildlife forensics laboratory in Canada distinguishes illegal, wild-caught specimens from captive bred ones, and can recognize caviar from protected fish. Investigators can detect illegal ingredients in exotic cuisine and Asian medicines, and bring heavy fines or jail time to offenders.  Before the United States' National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory was created, prosecution was only likely if there was a willing witness, so 90% of wildlife crime went unpunished. Now the Lab can be presented with over 1000 cases in a single year and put real pressure on traffickers who pose one of the fastest threats to conservation.

Okay, this is cause for hope, but let's bring it back to humans for a minute.  We can't save all the threatened plants and animals, a shame in itself, but what will we, as a society, have lost?  Information we didn't know we didn't know.  DNA's structure and influence on heredity has only been known for 60 years and has already drastically altered our way of life.  In gene analysis, we can discover aspects of an organism's physiology and evolution; trace metals and biochemical markers can even tell us about the environment it lived in.  From these clues we can learn about our own evolutionary history, and possibly decode health benefits or ingenuities as yet unimagined (think how many inventions nature has inspired already!).  Even what we do know has seldom been applied to certain species; by the time we take notice of what we could learn from them, they may be gone.

The Frozen Ark is not alone.  There are DNA banks in San Diego, New York, Australia, South Africa, Germany, Norway, India, and New Zealand, and many are concentrating more and more on endangered species.  The Frozen Ark Project stands out because it doubles as a global library of compiled data gathered from these and other institutions that now make up the “Frozen Ark Consortium.”  These facilities and the vital information they store is a resource for current conservation efforts, a back-up for worst case scenarios, and a long-shot hope for the future of our planet's rarest species.

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