taigas-den:

orcinus-ocean:

zoologicallyimprobable:

On 6 February 2012, a female black-footed cat kitten, Crystal, was born to a domestic cat surrogate after interspecies embryo transfer.

A black-footed cat served as the surrogate mother for [2011′s] litter. Researchers next sought to show that vastly more plentiful domestic cats can serve as surrogate mothers in efforts to save the small wild cat from extinction.

“Being able to use domestic cats adds another extra dimension to that, being able to produce more,” said Earle Pope, acting director of the center. Only 53 of the cats, which are native to South Africa, live in zoo collections in the United States.

(source for text, images from Dara o’Briain’s Science Club)

This is one of the rarest species of African cats, but most people don’t even know it exists.

!!!! HOLY SHIT THINK OF WHAT THIS CAN DO FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD! especially ones who can’t handle captivity or have weird gestation periods that can’t be replicated in captivity