The frozen zoo is a collection of biological materials from a wide variety of rare and critically endangered species. The biological material is composed of gametes (sperm and oocytes), embryos, tissue samples (cell lines), serum and other items. It represents a genetic bank vault, an archive of irreplaceable genetic information that can be preserved for perhaps hundreds of years. It is stored in specialised holding tanks filled with liquid nitrogen at a temperature of -196 degrees Celsius or -373 degrees Fahrenheit. If a species nears extinction and its genes are lost, some samples can be thawed and by using assisted reproductive techniques, offspring can be produced. The collected gametes in the frozen zoo are also used in the process of artificial insemination, embryo transfer, and invitrofertilization.
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