What's happening?

A hungry wolf pup is running around a room in Beijing, China. Her name is Maya, and she was created by scientists. Maya is an exact copy of another wolf. 

Maya was created using a system called cloning. Scientists take some cellsThe smallest bit of a plant or animal that can live on its own. from one animal, and use them to make another. It is a bit like creating a twin, but one that can be born years later. 

The first mammalA warm-blooded animal where mothers feed young using their own bodies. to be cloned was Dolly the sheep, who was born in Scotland in 1996.

Some people say cloning is not a good idea, and that we do not yet know how risky it might be. And Maya cannot live in the wild, as she has never met any other wild animals. 

But other people think cloning is very exciting. Arctic wolves are common. But other speciesA set of animals or plants with similar features. Members of the same species can breed with each other. risk dying out. Cloning the last living animals could help them stay alive.

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And some think cloning could one day even bring animals back from the dead, like dodosA large, extinct flightless bird with a hooked bill. It was found on Mauritius until the end of the 17th Century. or Tasmanian tigersAn extinct Australian marsupial known for the stripes along its back. . 

Is it wrong to clone wild animals?

Yes! There is still so much we do not know about cloning. It would be better to focus on saving animals that are still alive. 

No! Cloning is a huge step forward. We could bring back animals and return life on the planet to how it was before humans.