Cloning Wild Life:
Zoos, Captivity, and the Future of Endangered Animals
“In this brilliant
study of cloned wild life, Carrie Friese adds a whole new dimension to the
study of reproduction, illustrating vividly and persuasively how social and
biological reproduction are inextricably bound together, and why this
matters.”—Sarah Franklin, author of Dolly Mixtures: the Remaking of Genealogy
The natural world is
marked by an ever-increasing loss of varied habitats, a growing number of
species extinctions, and a full range of new kinds of dilemmas posed by global
warming. At the same time, humans are also working to actively shape this
natural world through contemporary bioscience and biotechnology. In Cloning
Wild Life, Carrie Friese posits that cloned endangered animals in zoos sit at
the apex of these two trends, as humans seek a scientific solution to
environmental crisis. Often fraught with controversy, cloning technologies,
Friese argues, significantly affect our conceptualizations of and engagements
with wildlife and nature.
By studying animals
at different locations, Friese explores the human practices surrounding the
cloning of endangered animals. She visits zoos—the San Diego Zoological Park,
the Audubon Center in New Orleans, and the Zoological Society of London—to see
cloning and related practices in action, as well as attending academic and
medical conferences and interviewing scientists, conservationists, and
zookeepers involved in cloning. Ultimately, she concludes that the act of
recalibrating nature through science is what most disturbs us about cloning
animals in captivity, revealing that debates over cloning become, in the end, a
site of political struggle between different human groups. Moreover, Friese explores the implications of
the social role that animals at the zoo play in the first place—how they are
viewed, consumed, and used by humans for our own needs. A unique study uniting
sociology and the study of science and technology, Cloning Wild Life
demonstrates just how much bioscience reproduces and changes our ideas about
the meaning of life itself.
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