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genetic biodiversity on our planet, as well as the diversity in local gene pools. by guarding against genetic erosion. Modern concepts like seedbanks, sperm banks, and tissue banks have become much more commonplace and valuable. Sperm, eggs, and embryos can now be frozen and kept in banks, which are sometimes called "Modern Noah's Arks" or "Frozen Zoos". Cryopreservation techniques are used to freeze these living materials and keep them alive in perpetuity by storing them submerged in liquid nitrogen tanks at very low temperatures. Thus, preserved materials can then be used for artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, embryo transfer, and cloning methodologies to protect diversity in the gene pool of critically endangered species.
It can be possible to save an endangered species from extinction by preserving only parts of specimens, such as tissues, sperm, eggs, etc. – even after the death of a critically endangered animal, or collected from one found freshly dead, in captivity or from the wild. A new specimen can then be "resurrected" with the help of cloning, so as to give it another chance to breed its genes into the living population of the respective threatened species. Resurrection of dead critically endangered wildlife specimens with the help of cloning is still being perfected, and is still too expensive to be practical, but with time and further advancements in science and methodology it may well become a routine procedure not too far into the future.
Recently, strategies for finding an integrated approach to in situ and ex situ conservation techniques have been given considerable attention, and progress is being made.
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Flashmag January 2020 www.flashmag.net