Fighting bull cloned in Spain

NO SMALL FEAT: Got, Spain’s first cloned Spanish fighting bull, is seen hoursafter its birth at a ranch in Melgar de Yuso, northern Spain.

Spain has cloned a fighting bull for the first time, the team of scientists behind the achievement said on Wednesday.

The bull, named Got, which means glass in the Catalan language, was born on Tuesday near the town of Palencia in northern Spain.

Got is identical to his father, named Vasito, which means “small glass” in Spanish, a fighting bull who died in March after life as a stud.

A second clone of Vasito is expected to be born in the coming days.

Fighting bulls are raised for bullfights. Most die in the ring but some spend their lives as studs.

The head of the team of veterinarians and biologists, Vicente Torrent, said their success “highlights a technique that could be used to help species under threat of extinction.”

He said he had at first considered cloning an Iberian lynx, the world's most threatened feline species, but decided to start with a bull.