U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP Images

Elizabeth Ann is the first clone of an endangered species in the U.S.

Could cloning technology help save endangered animals? Scientists recently cloned Willa, a black-footed ferret that died more than 30 years ago, using her preserved cells to create a new ferret, Elizabeth Ann. It’s the first time an endangered species native to the U.S. has been cloned. And with fewer than 500 black-footed ferrets left in the wild, the success of this experiment could be huge. If all goes well, experts say, Elizabeth Ann’s grandkids could be born in three to four years. Now researchers hope to clone other endangered species, as well as some that have become extinct, including passenger pigeons and woolly mammoths. These advances in technology are meant to work alongside traditional conservation efforts to help animals survive. “Conservation needs more tools in the toolbox,” Ryan Phelan, executive director of Revive & Restore, a nonprofit involved in the ferret cloning, told the Associated Press. “Cloning is just one of the tools.”