Indian scientists plan to clone an Iranian cheetah to revive a species that became extinct in India more than four decades ago, an expert said on Friday, in what would be the country's first animal cloning bid. A team of scientists would soon travel to Iran, one of a handful of countries that still have cheetahs, to collect sperm and tissue samples from a cheetah in a zoo there, said Lalji Singh, director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology. "The Iranian government has agreed to support the project, which assumes importance as the Indian cheetah is extinct now," said S. Shivaji, a deputy director at the center. Cheetahs are the fastest animals on earth with a speed of up to 95 km (60 miles) an hour. They were once found in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. But they are now largely extinct in the wild except in Africa, where there are only about 12,000 to 15,000 left. There are about 1,200 in captivity worldwide. The Indian cheetah became extinct in 1962 because of large-scale hunting.
