SINGAPORE, July 14 -- Heard of seed banks? Singapore is now making a similar preservation facility but for animal cells.

The Straits Times reported on Singapore's own Noah's Ark of sorts, that will house frozen cells and tissues of South-east Asian animals.

Mandai Wildlife Group, manager of Singapore's five wildlife parks, uses special cooling technology to keep the frozen cells viable.

After the cells are thawed, they will be able to replicate and grow.

So far Mandai's conservation arm - Mandai Nature - has successfully banked the live cells of 10 bird species including the endangered lilac-crowned amazon, milky stork and Bali myna.

This kind of effort is called biobanking, a means of preserving and storing biological material from ...