Today’s sex ed lesson from The San Diego Zoo: Cloning. What Star Wars and Dolly teach us about reproduction

While watching Kurt, a cutie-pie horse, romp near his surrogate mother, it’s impossible to know that he was cloned!

In 1980, researcher’s froze cells taken from a Przewalski stallion - a wild, endangered horse species. Forty years later, the frozen cells were thawed, and fused with egg cells from a regular ol’ horse - egg cells that had had their nucleus removed. The resulting embryos were then placed into the uterus of a surrogate horse - a horse that became pregnant and gave birth to Kurt.

There are only about 2,000 Przewalski horses left in the world; all in zoos or wildlife preserves, and they all have the same 12 common ancestors. By introducing genetic material from a horse that lived quite a long time ago, the hope is that this additional genetic diversity will help the species be more resistant to illness and disease and more able to adapt to the ever-changing environment.

Dolly the sheep wasn’t the first animal to be cloned (the first was a frog in the 1950’s), but she was the most famous. Today, mice, rats, rabbits, cats, dogs, cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, and horses are routinely closed for commercial and research purposes. But other wild species have also been cloned: coyote, wolf, white-tailed deer, bighorn sheep, African wildcat, sand cat, Northern leopard frog, Japanese pond frog, and Spanish ribbed newt. (revive & restore)

Most cloned animals are healthy and live average life spans - which means they usually reach adulthood and can then reproduce themselves (the old fashioned way)! The use of cloning technology is widespread in the animal world. How close are humans to using it? Is it ethical? How do we feel about it?

Questions for discussion:

Early Elementary School

What is a cell? What kinds of different cells are there? How do cells work? Talk about the nucleus that contains the instruction manual for the cell, so the cell knows what they are supposed to do.

Later Elementary School

What are sperm and egg cells? How do they work to create a baby? What is DNA? Where does it come from? What does it do?

Middle School

Have you heard of cloning? Talk about how cloning means making genetically identical copies of living things. Use identical twins as an example - it’s when a fertilized egg splits in half, and those halves go on to create two individuals, but they have nearly identical genetic material.

Did you know that scientists can use other kinds of cells to make copies of living things? What do you think of this? Do you think it’s an OK thing to do? Why or why not?

Use Kurt as an example. Or, if they have ever watched Star Wars, the clones were created from Jango Fett’s cells.

High School

Do you think it’s possible to clone humans? Do you think it will one day be possible? Do you think it’s ethical to do so? Why or why not?

To learn about sexual health standards - what topics and skills should be taught at what grade level, please visit the Discussions by Age section of our website, RoadsToFamily

https://zoo.sandiegozoo.org/.../birth-cloned-przewalskis...

Photo: San Diego Zoo