The hopeless attempt to save the wild goats from extinction twice

Pyrenees are the first species to revive from the risk of being wiped out and are also the only species that has become extinct twice.

The Pyrenees goat, also known as the bucardo, once inhabited the mountains of the Pyrenees in the French-Spanish border as well as the Basque Country, Navarre, northern Aragon, and northern Catalonia, according to IFL Science. Despite being a symbol of the whole region, the massive curved horns of the Pyrenees goat into attractive targets for poachers. By the second half of the 20th century, animals gradually became absent on the hillsides.

Doctor Alberto (right) and Celia, the last surviving Pyrenees jungle goat.(Photo: IFL Science).

Efforts to strengthen breeding took place during the 1980s but were too late. In 1997, there was only one surviving Pyrenees wildcat. The rangers found the remnant, a 13-year-old female goat named Celia, beneath a fallen tree in a remote area in the Ordesa National Park in January 2000. Pyrenees goat forest is officially classified as an extinct animal group along with.

Alberto Fernández-Arias, a wildlife veterinarian who has studied Spanish revival, raised goats for 10 months before he died. He took samples of the cells from his ears and flanks, took them to the lab to grow them, and then preserved them frozen at deep temperatures."Mammal cloning was once thought impossible. By 1996, it was born. And that event changed a lot," Alberto said.

Based on Alberto's Spanish painting reborn experience, a group of Jose Folch-led French and Spanish scientists began an effort to revive the Pyrenees.

Folch's group injected from Celia goat's cells into the goat's egg has been removed from the genetic material. Later, they implanted the eggs into a hybrid between Spanish chamois and domestic goats. They successfully implanted 57 fetuses. However, only 7 crossbred animals were pregnant and 6 of them died. The other child was born successfully.

Large horns make the Pyrenees goat to extinction.(Photo: ILF).

A Pyrenees wildcat was born on July 30, 2003."I pulled the little goat out. That moment was the first time in a history of an extinct animal returning to life , " Alberto said.

This event marks the first time humans have defeated the extinction even in extremely short time."As soon as I hugged the animal in my hand, I knew he had respiratory failure. We had oxygen tanks and special medicines ready, but he could not breathe normally. After 7-10 minutes, he "Goat died," Alberto recounted.

The story was not known to the public until scientists published the study in 2009. However, the capital was exhausted and many researchers left the project, leading to the extinction of the Pyrenees. half. The team does not consider itself as pioneers of extinction. All they do is for the Pyrenees.

"When the Pyrenees are alive, we try to save them. When they all die, we still try to save them," Alberto explained.