A cloned Arctic wolf and its beagle surrogate shared an affectionate moment.

Footage shows the wolf playfully nibbling on the ear of its surrogate mother in their enclosure at Harbin Polarland in Heilongjiang, China, on July 3.

Two other wolves in a separate glass enclosure can be seen pawing at the wall as if wanting to play with the beagle.

A staff member said in a local interview that the cloned wolf was born on June 10, 2022.

'It was obedient to its mother, often allowing her to sit or rest on its fur to keep warm,' he added.

Local reports said that the Arctic wolf is the world's first cloned of its kind, created using skin cells from 'Maya,' an Arctic wolf from Canada.

Dolly was the first mammal successfully cloned from an adult cell in 1996.

The most common technique for cloning animals is somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), which involves replacing the nucleus of an egg cell with the nucleus of a body cell from the animal.

Research suggests that cloned animals born alive often suffer from breathing problems, tumours, liver defects, or other abnormalities. They also have a reduced lifespan.