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Sporting legend to be cloned

One of Spain’s sporting heros is to be cloned in a bid to ensure the future of bullfighting. A bull called El Alcalde - or ‘Mayor’ - is 16 years old and too old to father any new offspring.

So his owner Victoriano del Rio is paying around £25,000 to have him cloned to try to continue producing fighting bulls with El Alcalde’s revered qualities - “a brave style and good fighting attitude”.

It is costing the owner around the same price as buying a new breeding bull - but attempting to clone an animal is also risky. While the clone will be an exact genetic copy, it is not certain the characteristics Mr del Rio is looking for will be reproduced faithfully.

Mr del Rio said: “There’s no guarantee, as this is the first time it’s been done. When you want to advance in science, you have to take a bet. They can only guarantee that the clone will have a 100% of the original DNA, not, however, an identical fighting quality.

“That’s what we have to see.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .