San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Adds First-Ever Insect To Frozen Zoo

SAN DIEGO, CA — The Lord Howe Island stick insect, once thought extinct, now has its future safeguarded through cryopreservation.

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance has successfully cryopreserved cells from the critically endangered Lord Howe Island stick insect to its world-renowned Frozen Zoo, marking the first time an insect has been included in the world's largest and most diverse collection of living biomaterials. This achievement provides a critical safeguard for a species rediscovered in 2001 after being presumed extinct since the 1930s, according to the organization, which operates the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

"Adding the Lord Howe Island stick insect to the Frozen Zoo reflects our commitment to protecting all wildlife, big and small, and it establishes a model for how cryopreservation can be applied to other threatened insects," said Carly Young, laboratory manager of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. "These cryopreserved samples are creating a powerful resource for the future that can help restore genetic diversity and support the long-term resilience of this extraordinary species."

The Lord Howe Island stick insect, a large, flightless invertebrate endemic to the Lord Howe Island Group in the Tasman Sea, was presumed extinct in the wild by 1930. In 2001, the species was rediscovered when a tiny population was found surviving on a single shrub on the steep, rocky slopes of Ball's Pyramid, a volcanic outcrop located about 12 miles from Lord Howe Island. To save the species, one breeding pair was carefully collected and brought to the Australian mainland to establish a secure breeding program at Australia's Melbourne Zoo.

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance joined the partnership in 2012 to establish an assurance population in North America. Visitors to the San Diego Zoo can see these rare, nocturnal insects in a specialized habitat at the zoo's Wildlife Explorers Basecamp.

This milestone coincides with San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Frozen Zoo, a pioneering resource that has set the standard for conservation and cryopreservation science worldwide.