Noreen and Antonia, two recently-born black-footed ferrets, are miraculous creatures. Scientists at US Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) used genetic material collected from a female ferret 45 years ago and cloned her. This is more than just an experiment: researchers hope the cloned animals will play an important role in reviving their endangered species. Currently, there are only 370 living black-footed ferrets and all of them have descended from the same seven ferrets bred during a recovery program in the 1980s. This means that their population has low genetic diversity which adds even mor…