This Wild Bovine Is One of a Kind

SAN DIEGO —  With the placidity common to its kind, a Southeast Asian banteng, a type of wild bovine, has gone on display at the San Diego Zoo, the first clone of an endangered species to go public.

Although not as famous as Dolly, the cloned sheep whose 1996 debut in Scotland captured world attention, the animal, named Jahava, has its own claim to prominence.

Researchers at the zoo’s Center for the Reproduction of Endangered Species are hoping Jahava will eventually become a stud, thus proving that cloned animals are capable of reproducing and helping save species on the brink of extinction.

The goal, said zoo geneticist Oliver Ryder, is to “keep a small gene pool from dwindling even further.”

Jahava is derived from cells collected from a male banteng that died in 1980 at the zoo’s Wild Animal Park without reproducing offspring.

The cells had been frozen and stored at the zoo and later transferred into “empty” eggs from an ordinary domestic Angus cow at the Trans Ova Genetics research center in Sioux City, Iowa.

Born April 1, Jahava was soon moved to the Wild Animal Park and kept away from public view. Surgery was required to correct a birth abnormality: undescended testicles.

On Thursday, Jahava was moved to the San Diego Zoo to share an enclosure with two female banteng.

A third female with which Jahava had struck up a friendship at the Wild Animal Park also has been transferred to the zoo to aid in the socialization process.

Keepers say it is unclear whether the clone can gain acceptance from the other animals.

“That may seem obvious, but if you have a hand-raised animal like Jahava, it may not easily integrate into a social group,” Ryder said.

Loss of habitat and poaching to supply a black market in banteng horn -- thought to be an aphrodisiac in parts of Asia -- have threatened to wipe out the species.

Once plentiful, the banteng is now extinct in India, Bangladesh and west Malaysia. Isolated herds exist on islands of Borneo and Java.

Experts estimate that from 3,000 to 5,000 of the animals survive in the wild.

About 90 banteng live in North American zoos, including 35 at the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park.

Even with the apparent success of Jahava -- which means “bull” in Javanese -- cloning is far from a perfected science.

The frozen banteng embryos were placed in the wombs of 30 domestic cows, but only two carried the fetuses to term. One calf was born with gross abnormalities common to clones and was euthanized.

Jahava, 41 pounds at birth, now weighs 500 pounds and could reach more than 2,000 pounds when mature.

The animal’s coat is gaining the reddish hue that indicates normal blood flow, which will be significant when it reaches sexual maturity in two or more years, officials said.

Jahava is still being anxiously watched by researchers even as he is on public view.

“It’s like sending your kid to a different school,” Ryder said. “You get nervous.”