China clones gazelle species
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-09 11:14

China has cloned four Mongolian gazelles, a threatened species, by maturing the clones in goat wombs, the official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday.

The clones were created by scientists in Linyi city in eastern Shandong province, Xinhua said.

Twenty-six goats were implanted with the clones, resulting in six baby gazelle births, it said. Two of them were stillborn.

The surviving four clones were "doing well, running and hopping a lot," Xinhua quoted the scientists involved as saying.

The name of the facility and scientists who carried out the experiment were not given.

Animal cloning has been done successfully in numerous countries. Other animals that have been successfully cloned are sheep, cats, goats, cows, mice, pigs, rabbits, horses, deer, mules and gaur, a large wild ox in Southeast Asia.