“He’s gone,” murmurs Chester Zoo vet Gabby Drake – holding a stethoscope to the feathered chest of a 28-year-old, bright red tropical parrot.
The bird is a chattering lory – an elderly resident at Chester Zoo, and a species listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as vulnerable to extinction.
It is sad to see this striking, characterful bird having to be put to sleep. His small, clawed feet are gnarled with arthritis now too severe to treat.
It is not the end though for the unique genetic code contained in his cells. A few small pieces of his body will join samples taken from 100 species. They will be frozen – stored indefinitely – in the UK’s largest biobank of living tissue, Nature’s Safe.
In vials of a nutrient-rich, cell-friendly antifreeze, the samples are kept at -196C, at which point all the natural chemical processes in cells stop – they are suspended in animation.
The idea is that, at some point in the future – in decades, perhaps even centuries, they could be resurrected. This is a frozen backstop in case of extinction.
“It’s not going to stop extinction, but it’ll certainly help,” says Tullis Matson, founder of Nature’s Safe.
