Latest news with #Nature'sSafe
Channel 4
06-07-2025
- Science
- Channel 4
Frozen sperm vault bringing animals back from brink of extinction
Producer: Maeve Campbell In just a few years, we'll be able to make a new tiger from a vat in a lab in the Shropshire fields – at least that's the hope. Talk about playing God – and all in the name of saving our most endangered species from extinction. But god needs to get to work, say some. 70 percent of species have been lost since the 1970s. We are moving through the dying – the sixth Great Extinction – caused almost completely by humans. Nature's Safe has its lab a few miles southeast of sleepy, prosperous Whitchurch in rural Shropshire. Chairman and founder, Tullis Matson, started out in the family stud farm inseminating mares. He then realised our endangered biodiversity was screaming more urgently, and he set up this charity. 'This is cryogenics. That's what we do here. I mean, we call it cryo- conservation.' – Tullis Matson Lifting the lid on frozen animal species' DNA, at minus 80 degrees Celsius. A lifeline, they say, to saving our rarest species from extinction. 'This is like a nuclear bunker in this room. We've got the genetics of some of the rarest animals out there stored, cryo-frozen in time, basically waiting to be thawed out in 10, 20 or maybe 1,000 years' time, and bring those cells back to life within about 30 seconds, which is quite incredible, what science and cryo science, or cryo conservation, can actually do to many of our endangered species that are literally on the brink. They're on a cliff edge. So I believe we have to do something. This runs alongside normal conservation efforts,' says Matson In Svalbard, Northern Norway, a frozen seed bank of the world's plants is slowly assembling. But the Shropshire operation is the only place in Europe where freezing of animal species – sperm, eggs, and, crucially, skin samples – is happening at scale. They've just passed the 300 species mark, and it is skin which unlocks the cryogenic future. I suddenly find myself asking Tullis if he could maybe make me four new Scottish wildcats, teetering on the edge of extinction oblivion. Well, not yet, but it is coming in a few years, is the answer. Shropshire is the only place in Europe where freezing of animal species – sperm, eggs, and skin – is happening at scale. Skin has the whole DNA of that particular animal. And when we freeze that down, we can freeze its entirety, and then when we bring it back, we can turn that skin cell eventually into a sperm or into an egg. They've done it in mice, and the technology will evolve. I don't know whether to be ecstatic or terrified. Right now here there is a push to conserve red squirrels. For the first time in Europe, their cells have been successfully grown here. And that initial stage is actually relatively straightforward. The more challenging stage is, once you get stem cells, you then divert it into a different cell type, from which semen or eggs could emerge. And that's the more complicated stage. That's the bit where the research and development really needs to come through for different species. A few miles away, Janet King successfully breeds magnificent Shire horses. She also has two wild cats, a species whose DNA already lies frozen in the nearby lab, but her red squirrel breeding enclosure lies empty. They failed to breed. So she's donated some red squirrel skin DNA to the lab. 'Sometimes you can go into like a downward spiral and it becomes fewer and fewer animals. The gene pool becomes smaller and smaller, and by doing the work that Nature's Safe is doing is protecting species for the future, whether it's this year, next year, five years, 20 years, 50 years' time. If it's needed, it is there. It's banked. It could still be a route back for us.' Growing brand new red squirrels remains just a few years' off, but the lab has already produced new coral – an animal, not a plant. It's now being matured in a London museum for potential reintroduction to depleted wild reefs. The application of all this for wild species in the biosphere is obvious then, but there's also a domestic dimension to all this – the preservation of rare breeds like Suffolk Punch horse, for example, currently being worked on here. There is universal agreement here and among the wider conservation movement, though, that this can only ever be a small part in the global fight against species extinction, an absolute last possible resort. A word for warning from Craig Bennett, CEO of The Wildlife Trusts. 'Let's be really wary of any of those tech bros out there who think there's some kind of simple tech silver bullet solution to the loss of nature.' – Craig Bennett 'What we need is thousands of different efforts to restore nature at scale and to do it at pace and at scale and with a sense of urgency and political will and political leadership to make it happen. Be wary of anyone that offers you a simple solution to a complex problem.' Over at the lab, Tullis totally agrees with that sentiment. One day soon, we will be able to make a new snow leopard, white rhino, red squirrel, you name it, from a frozen vat in Shropshire. It's coming. 'We never want to have to use these tanks in a way. We hope we don't have to dive into them, because you're only diving into them if you have to. But I fear we will have to, at some point. A hundred per cent, we have to be using these new technologies without a shadow of a doubt. Otherwise, I'm afraid we're going to see many of our species disappear in front of our eyes.' All sides agree successfully preventing extinction rests on preserving wild habitat. Above all, if we have to use cryogenics, it will be indeed the very last resort, and also a sign of our failure. Authorities crack down on illegal wildlife trade Nature takes back control in the Lake District Is the new planning bill a licence to destroy wildlife?
The Guardian
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘My daughter just loves you': stars of One Zoo Three have high hopes for Hertfordshire
Outside the enclosure, eager visitors jostle for a glimpse of the rare Asiatic lions Sahee and Sonika, Hertfordshire Zoo's newest residents. The beasts yawn imperiously in the sun, every twitch of their tails sparking an excited murmur. But when Aaron, Tyler and Cam Whitnall are spotted, the animals are instantly forgotten. The stars of children's BBC programme One Zoo Three, are tenderly, but relentlessly, mobbed. 'We got up at 5am to drive here,' explains one delighted, if bleary-eyed dad. 'My daughter just loves you.' She is not the only one. The three brothers have become stars of children's TV since the first series about their lives on their family zoo aired in 2000. But four decades after their grandparents bought 'the worst zoo in the UK', they have their sights on becoming a world-leading conservation organisation. 'We want to be a beacon of hope here,' says Tyler, the middle brother, recovering from the adoration with a cup of tea in Zoo HQ. 'One day we want to be known as the best zoo in the UK, up there with Chester, and a leader in terms of education, wildlife conservation, sustainability. We literally want to be at the top.' It's a big ambition. Hertfordshire Zoo is small, even by UK standards, with about 1,000 animals across 16 acres – by comparison, Chester has at least 37,000 animals over its 128-acre site. But as the home of One Zoo Three, its footprint in the online world and children's imaginations is outsized – and its presence on the global stage is growing. 'We've got our fingers in every pie,' says Cameron, the youngest of the brothers, who admits to finding it a 'bit awkward' when mums approach him about the show in the pub. The trio rolled out their fifth season of One Zoo Three last year, and the corporation added the show to BBC Bitesize, its educational offering for schools. On the conservation front, the zoo has recently protected penguins in South Africa, released rehabilitated lions back into the wild in Uganda and brought five traumatised lions from the war zone in Ukraine to their sister site the Big Cat Sanctuary in Kent. It is also moving into research and preservation, recently signing a deal with Nature's Safe, a wildlife biobank to cryopreserve skin and semen samples. In the Easter holidays the busy zoo – with its colourful information boards, rammed play parks and regular talks – is a far cry from the bleak site that Peter and Grace Sampson, the brothers' grandparents, bought in 1984 to build a depot for their successful coach company. It looked 'as if a hurricane had gone through it' says the boys' mother and zoo chief executive Lynn Whitnall. Animals were living in inhumane conditions. Footage from the old zoo shows a chimp dressed in human clothes, with a chain around its neck, smoking a cigarette. Its main attraction, a lion called Bobby, was kept in a small enclosure with a corrugated iron roof and had never felt grass under his feet. Plans for the depot went out of the window. 'The love of the animals took over,' says Lynn. After closing for 18 months and pulling in favours from coach drivers and mechanics to build new enclosures, the zoo was given a licence and opened as Paradise Park and Woodland Zoo in Easter 1986. 'People weren't really all that supportive, especially within the zoo profession,' says Aaron. 'They kind of saw the family as outsiders.' Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Many of the original animals had been rescued from closing circuses, and the family pulled every business lever from hospitality to animal petting to fund new habitats. After decades of investment and supporting conservation projects, the zoo's reputation has 'come a full 180', he says. 'Since Covid, we've had more zoo directors and important people from within the world of conservation visit us than we did in the 20 years before.' By any reckoning, growing up on site at the zoo gave the brothers an extraordinary childhood. When Cam, the youngest, got in a grump he would go and sit with the monkeys. Aaron slept with a rescued lioness cub who had been rejected by her family for several months. 'We wouldn't do it now, but after hours we would just go and sit in with the meerkats or the porcupines or the tapirs in the evenings,' says Cam. Those moments fired their passion to share a love of wildlife – either through experiences in the zoo, through the show or in their hyperactive social media output, says Tyler. At a moment when vast swathes of natural habitats are being destroyed by human development and the climate crisis – according to the most recent figures, wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018. The brothers admit to a heavy feeling of responsibility, but argue that showing what good zoos can do – and making kids laugh, care and have hope – is critical to the conservation fight. 'The way we've grown up is getting close to animals, that's how we've fallen in love with them,' he says. 'Sharing the wonder of wildlife is our slogan for a reason.'
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Snow leopard with 'huge' conservation legacy dies
A snow leopard who helped preserve her own endangered species has died of age-related ill health, a zoo has said. The big cat, known as Tara, was kept at Lakeland Wildlife Oasis (LWO) near Milnthorpe, Cumbria, and was 15 when she died "quietly in her sleep" on Sunday. Tara "contributed massively to a captive breeding programme", and her DNA was donated to cryogenic preservation charity Nature's Safe to support future conservation. Dr Richard Francksen, senior lecturer in zoology at the University of Cumbria, said Tara's loss was "very sad", but she left a "huge legacy" through her many offspring living in zoos across Europe. Tara who had been with her mate Pavan at LWO since 2011, outlived the life expectancy of wild snow leopards. The spiecies is classified as vulnerable and on the red list of threatened animals due to loss of habitat, climate change, poaching and human-wildlife conflict. Dr Francksen said snow leopards are native to the mountain ranges of central and south Asia, such as Afghanistan, the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. They live above 10,000ft (3,000m), though may descend to lower altitudes to find food. He said captive breeding programmes went hand-in-hand with conservation in the wild and Tara would continue to contribute to those efforts. "In some ways Tara lives on through the donation of her DNA for preservation for future captive breeding programmes. "Also, she has many offspring and actually she was a grandparent to many other snow leopards in captive breeding programmes across Europe." Dr Francksen got to know Tara and Pavan "quite well" when one his students studied them for their dissertation last year. He said: "The loss of any individual snow leopard is sad, and it's clear to me reading the messages online that Tara brought a lot of joy to a lot of visitors at LWO." An LWO spokesperson said Pavan was being "closely monitored" and was "doing fine". They added: "Together they created a major bloodline for the breeding programme and did their bit to save their species from extinction." LWO said Tara had "touched the lives of many". "While it hurts to say goodbye, Tara's legacy will live forever.". Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@ Zoo expansion boosts hopes for conservation Armadillo 'love match' results in twins Zoo thanks 'strong local support' for reopening LWO
