The world's first cloned Arctic wolf has been unveiled in northern China.

Video filmed in the city of Harbin in Heilongjiang Province on September 28 shows a 3-month-old cloned female Arctic wolf named Maya playing with her beagle surrogate mother.

The cloned Maya used DNA collected from a 16-year-old female Arctic wolf, also named Maya, that died in captivity at a wildlife park called Harbin.

The original Maya was born in Canada and was then shipped to China in 2006. She died due to old age in early 2021.

Researchers used beagle surrogates because there were not enough female wolves in captivity for the scientists' experiments and dogs share enough DNA with wolves for the hybrid pregnancy to gestate successfully.

The Sinogene Biotechnology Company in Beijing specialises in cloning dead pets for private clients. But the company now wants to help clone endangered species for conservation purposes.

The company announced a new partnership with the Beijing Wildlife Park to potentially clone other species in the near future.

The video was provided by local media with permission.

9月28日，世界首只克隆北极狼在哈尔滨极地公园和公众见面。这只克隆北极狼的供体细胞来自于哈尔滨极地公园2006年引进的北极狼“玛雅”的皮肤样本，代孕母体为一只比格犬。这只3个多月大的克隆北极狼为雌性，目前体态特征明显，健康状态良好。
今年6月10日，世界首例体细胞克隆北极狼在北京出生。克隆北极狼的供体细胞来自哈尔滨极地公园引进的一只野生北极狼的皮肤样本，卵母细胞来自一只发情期母犬。科研人员将卵母细胞进行脱卵丘和去核处理，再将供体细胞注射到去核卵母细胞的卵周隙，体细胞核与去核的卵母细胞重新构建成新的胚胎。这在科学上是第一次，这可能有助于挽救全球各地的濒危物种。（视频由黑龙江台提供）