Test Tube Kitten Born In U.S.

Test Tube Kitten Born In U.S. An Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species photo shows Crystal, a test-tube kitten of the endangered black-footed species. Her embryo was created by invitro fertilisation and implanted into the womb of a domestic cat which gave birth February 6.

Several endangered black-footed cats have been born recently in the US and researchers say Crystal’s birth is the rarest – the first ever born from an embryo fertilised in a lab dish, frozen, and later implanted in a housecat’s womb.

The black-footed cat is Africa’s smallest wildcat and one of the world’s smallest felines – smaller even than a domestic cat.

Earle Pope, interim director of the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species, says Crystal was born February 6 at the New Orleans complex.

He says Crystal is proof that embryos of this dwindling species can be successfully implanted into domestic cats.

Only an estimated 10,000 of these cats, which get their name from their distinctive black foot pads, still live in the wild in southern Africa.