Scientist hoping to help along endangered species have had luck breeding kittens for African black-footed cats. The sperm was taken from a male in 2003 and then an egg was fertilized in 2005 but then the embryo was kept frozen until just recently when it was placed in a surrogate mother who gave birth successfully in late February. Perhaps this process will be able to help conserve other species and hopefully it might go a little faster than 7 years. The embryo from one species can be placed with a surrogate cat from another species so this may help with very rare species.
The African black-footed cat is one of the smallest of all cats, even smaller than normal house cats. They have not been very successful breeding in captivity and their numbers are very low with perhaps only 50 individuals left and less than 30 in the wild.
