London - Animals on the edge of extinction may be saved by cloning, a conservation expert, Dr William Holt, predicted yesterday, and a prime candidate would be the Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat, he said.
Only between 40 and 50 of the creatures are left in Queensland, Australia, and a bush fire could wipe them out. Dr Holt, from the Zoological Society's Institute in London, said it was looking some way ahead but "the idea would be to take tissue samples for cloning from a number of different animals in order to preserve their diversity."
