Chester Zoo freezes tissue samples from the world's rarest animals to save them from extinction
Conservationists at Chester Zoo have begun freezing tissue samples of the world’s rarest animals, in the battle to save hundreds of species from extinction.
The zoo’s scientists have teamed up with some of the UK’s leading animal reproduction experts to found Nature’s Safe one of Europe’s largest living biobanks, based in Whitchurch.
The biobank is dedicated to preserving and regenerating cells of the planet's most vulnerable species, preserving tissue samples from ovaries, testicles and ears of animals that have passed away at the zoo.
Using state-of-the-art technology the small tissue samples are then cryogenically frozen at temperatures of -196°C using liquid nitrogen.
Dr Sue Walker, head of science at Chester Zoo and co-founder of Nature’s Safe, said: “With gene pools and animal populations continually shrinking in the wild, the work of modern conservation zoos like ours has never been more important.
