Due to some ethical issues, in 2006, Hwang Woo-suk, was stripped of his stem cell research license but since then he has claimed to clone about eight coyotes making use of techniques that were first made when he cloned a dog in 2005.

He said, "We injected a coyote's somatic cell into a dog's egg and produced a cloned embryo. The pups were born 60 days after we transplanted the embryo into the dog's uterus."

After two journal papers were found to be based on data that was fabricated, in 2009, South Korea's stem cell research was set back by about two years as Hwang was convicted of fraud and embezzling state funds.

The wrongdoings were always denied by Hwang and he stated that he wanted to apply his research to get back extinct animals back.

He added that the success rate of his experiments is 50 per cent after six years of innovation. The techniques will be applied to animals that are at the verge of extinction.

The coyote is spotted in Central and North America and is also called the American jackal or prairie wolf.