Przewalski's Horse
Encyclopedia
Przewalski's Horse
or Dzungaria
n Horse, is a rare and endangered subspecies of wild horse
(Equus ferus) native to the steppe
s of central Asia, specifically China and Mongolia.
At one time extinct in the wild, it has been reintroduced to its native habitat in Mongolia at the Khustain Nuruu National Park
, Takhin Tal Nature Reserve and Khomiin Tal. The taxonomic position is still debated, and some taxonomists treat Przewalski's Horse as a species, Equus przewalskii. In China, the last wild Przewalski's horses were seen in 1966. The Przewalski's Horse Reintroduction Project of China was initiated in 1985 with the creation of the Xinjiang Wild Horse Breeding Center.
Common name
s for this equine include Asian Wild Horse and Mongolian Wild Horse. Historical but obsolete names include true tarpan and Mongolian tarpan. The horse is named after the Russian geographer and explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky
.
Most "wild" horses today, such as the American Mustang
or the Australian Brumby
, are actually feral horse
s descended from domesticated animals that escaped and adapted to life in the wild. In contrast, Przewalski's Horse has never been successfully domesticated and remains a truly wild animal today. Przewalski's Horse is one of two known subspecies
of Equus ferus, the other being the extinct Tarpan
(Equus ferus ferus). The Przewalski's Horse is considered the only remaining truly wild "horse" in the world and may be the closest living wild relative of the domesticated horse
, Equus caballus. There are still a number of other wild equines, including three species of zebra
and various subspecies of the African wild ass
, onager
and kiang
.
(Equus ferus przewalskii) or even a sub-population of the horse (Equus ferus). Studies using DNA have been inconclusive, in part due to crossing domestic horses into the Przewalski's Horse as well as the limited genetic variation present in the founder population
of the Przewalski's Horse. A 2009 molecular study using ancient DNA
(that is DNA recovered from archaeological finds like bones and teeth) places the Przewalski's Horse in the middle of the domesticated horses, but more recent mitochondrial DNA analysis suggests that the Przewalski and the modern domestic horse diverged some 160,000 years ago.
and Mongolian scientists has resulted in successful reintroduction of these horses from zoo
s into their natural habitat in Mongolia; and as of 2011 there is an estimated free-ranging population of over 300 in the wild. The total number of these horses according to a 2005 census was about 1,500.
in color with pangaré
features, varying from dark brown around the mane (which stands erect) to pale brown on the flanks and yellowish-white on the belly and around the muzzle. The legs of Przewalski's Horse are often faintly striped, also typical of primitive markings
. The tail is about 90 cm (35.43 in) long, with a longer dock
and shorter hair than seen in domesticated horses.
In the wild, Przewalski's Horses live in social groups consisting of a dominant stallion, a dominant lead mare, other mares, and their offspring. The patterns of their daily lives exhibit horse behavior
similar to that of feral horse
herds. Each group has a well-defined home range; within the range, the herd travels between three and six miles a day, spending time grazing, drinking, using salt lick
s and dozing. At night, the herd clusters and sleeps for about four hours. Ranges of different herds may overlap without conflict, as the stallions are more protective of their mares than their territory.
Stallions practice a form of scent marking and will establish piles of dung at intervals along routes they normally travel to warn other males of their presence. In addition, when a female in the herd urinates, the stallion will frequently urinate in the same place, to signal her membership in the herd to other males. The stallions can frequently be seen sniffing dung piles to confirm scent markings.
recorded one of the first European sightings of the horses in the journal of his trip to Mongolia as a prisoner of the Mongol Khan
. The horse is named after the Russian colonel Nikolai Przhevalsky
(1839–1888) (the name is of Polish origin and "Przewalski" is the Polish spelling). He was the explorer and naturalist who first described the horse in 1881, after having gone on an expedition to find it, based on rumors of its existence. Many of these horses were captured around 1900 by Carl Hagenbeck
and placed in zoos. As noted above, about twelve to fifteen reproduced and formed today's population.
The native population declined in the 20th century due to a combination of factors, with the wild population in Mongolia dying out in the 1960s. The last herd was sighted in 1967 and the last individual horse in 1969. Expeditions after this failed to locate any horses, and the species was designated "extinct in the wild" for over 30 years.
After 1945 only two captive populations in zoos remained, in Munich
and in Prague
. The most valuable group, in Askania Nova, Ukraine, was shot by German soldiers during World War II occupation, and the group in the USA had died out.
By the end of the 1950s, only 12 individual Przewalski horses were left in the world.
In 1977, the Foundation for the Preservation and Protection of the Przewalski Horse was founded in Rotterdam
, the Netherlands, by Jan and Inge Bouman, which started a program of exchange between captive populations in zoos throughout the world to reduce inbreeding
, and later starting a breeding program of its own. As a result of such efforts, the extant herd has retained a far greater genetic diversity than its genetic bottleneck made likely.
In 1992, sixteen horses were released into the wild in Mongolia, followed by additional animals later on. One of the areas to which they were reintroduced became Khustain Nuruu National Park
in 1998. Another reintroduction site is Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area
, located at the fringes of the Gobi desert.
The reintroduced horses successfully reproduced, and the status of the animal was changed from "extinct in the wild" to "endangered" in 2005. On the IUCN Red List
, they were reclassified from "extinct in the wild" to "critically endangered" after a reassessment in 2008 and from "critically endangered" to "endangered" after a 2011 reassessment.
While dozens of zoos worldwide have Przewalski's Horses in small numbers, there are also specialized reserves dedicated primarily to the species.
The world's largest captive breeding program for Przewalski's horses is at the Askania Nova preserve in Ukraine. Several dozen Przewalski's horses were also released in the area evacuated after the Chernobyl accident, which now serves as a deserted de facto
natural preserve. An intensely researched population of free-ranging animals was also introduced to the Hortobágy
puszta
in Hungary; data on social structure, behavior, and diseases gathered from these animals is used to improve the Mongolian conservation effort.
Several American zoos also collaborated in breeding Equus ferus przewalskii from 1979 to 1982. Recent advances in equine reproductive science in the USA also have potential to further preserve and expand the gene pool. In October 2007, scientists at the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo successfully reversed a vasectomy
on a Przewalski horse — the first operation of its kind on this species and possibly the first ever on any endangered species. While normally a vasectomy may be performed on an endangered animal under limited circumstances, particularly if an individual has already produced many offspring and its genes are overrepresented in the population, scientists realized the animal in question was one of the most genetically valuable Przewalski horses in the North American breeding program.
The Przewalski's Horse Reintroduction Project of China was initiated in 1985 when the country introduced 11 wild horses from overseas. After more than two decades of dedicated efforts, the Xinjiang Wild Horse Breeding Center managed to breed a large number of the horses, of which 55 were let loose into the Kalamely Mountain
area. The animals quickly adapted to their new environment. In 1988, six foals were born and survived. In 2001 there were over 100 horses at the center. Now both their reproduction rate and survival rate are the highest in the world.
or Dzungaria
Dzungaria
Dzungaria, also called Zungaria, is a geographical region in northwest China corresponding to the northern half of Xinjiang. It covers approximately , lying mostly within Xinjiang, and extending into western Mongolia and eastern Kazakhstan...
n Horse, is a rare and endangered subspecies of wild horse
Wild Horse
The wild horse is a species of the genus Equus, which includes as subspecies the domesticated horse as well as the undomesticated Tarpan and Przewalski's Horse. The Tarpan became extinct in the 19th century, and Przewalski's Horse was saved from the brink of extinction and reintroduced...
(Equus ferus) native to the steppe
Steppe
In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...
s of central Asia, specifically China and Mongolia.
At one time extinct in the wild, it has been reintroduced to its native habitat in Mongolia at the Khustain Nuruu National Park
Khustain Nuruu National Park
Khustain Nuruu National Park , located in Tov Province , is a national park of Mongolia. It is also known as Hustai National Park. The Tuul River runs through the park....
, Takhin Tal Nature Reserve and Khomiin Tal. The taxonomic position is still debated, and some taxonomists treat Przewalski's Horse as a species, Equus przewalskii. In China, the last wild Przewalski's horses were seen in 1966. The Przewalski's Horse Reintroduction Project of China was initiated in 1985 with the creation of the Xinjiang Wild Horse Breeding Center.
Common name
Common name
A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...
s for this equine include Asian Wild Horse and Mongolian Wild Horse. Historical but obsolete names include true tarpan and Mongolian tarpan. The horse is named after the Russian geographer and explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky
Nikolai Przhevalsky
Nikolai Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky and Prjevalsky, ; —), was a Russian geographer of Polish background and explorer of Central and Eastern Asia. Although he never reached his final goal, Lhasa in Tibet, he travelled through regions unknown to the west, such as northern Tibet, modern Qinghai and...
.
Most "wild" horses today, such as the American Mustang
Mustang (horse)
A Mustang is a free-roaming horse of the North American west that first descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but there is intense debate over terminology...
or the Australian Brumby
Brumby
A Brumby is a free-roaming feral horse in Australia. Although found in many areas around the country, the best-known brumbies are found in the Australian Alps region in south-eastern Australia. Today, most of them are found in the Northern Territory, with the second largest population in Queensland...
, are actually feral horse
Feral horse
A feral horse is a free-roaming horse of domesticated ancestry. As such, a feral horse is not a wild animal in the sense of an animal without domesticated ancestors. However, some populations of feral horses are managed as wildlife, and these horses often are popularly called "wild" horses...
s descended from domesticated animals that escaped and adapted to life in the wild. In contrast, Przewalski's Horse has never been successfully domesticated and remains a truly wild animal today. Przewalski's Horse is one of two known subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
of Equus ferus, the other being the extinct Tarpan
Tarpan
Tarpan is an extinct subspecies of wild horse. The last individual of this subspecies died in captivity in Russia in 1909....
(Equus ferus ferus). The Przewalski's Horse is considered the only remaining truly wild "horse" in the world and may be the closest living wild relative of the domesticated horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
, Equus caballus. There are still a number of other wild equines, including three species of zebra
Zebra
Zebras are several species of African equids united by their distinctive black and white stripes. Their stripes come in different patterns unique to each individual. They are generally social animals that live in small harems to large herds...
and various subspecies of the African wild ass
African Wild Ass
The African Wild Ass is a wild member of the horse family, Equidae. This species is believed to be the ancestor of the domestic donkey which is usually placed within the same species. They live in the deserts and other arid areas of northeastern Africa, in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia; it...
, onager
Onager
The Onager is a large member of the genus Equus of the family Equidae native to the deserts of Syria, Iran, Pakistan, India, Israel and Tibet...
and kiang
Kiang
The kiang is the largest of the wild asses. It is native to the Tibetan Plateau, where it inhabits montane and alpine grasslands. Its current range is restricted to Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, plains of the Tibetan plateau and northern Nepal along the Tibetan border...
.
Taxonomy
The Przewalski's Horse was described in 1881 by L.S. Poliakov. The taxonomic position of Przewalski's Horse has always been problematic and no consensus exists whether it is a full species (Equus przewalskii), a subspecies of the wild horseWild Horse
The wild horse is a species of the genus Equus, which includes as subspecies the domesticated horse as well as the undomesticated Tarpan and Przewalski's Horse. The Tarpan became extinct in the 19th century, and Przewalski's Horse was saved from the brink of extinction and reintroduced...
(Equus ferus przewalskii) or even a sub-population of the horse (Equus ferus). Studies using DNA have been inconclusive, in part due to crossing domestic horses into the Przewalski's Horse as well as the limited genetic variation present in the founder population
Founder effect
In population genetics, the founder effect is the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population. It was first fully outlined by Ernst Mayr in 1942, using existing theoretical work by those such as Sewall...
of the Przewalski's Horse. A 2009 molecular study using ancient DNA
Ancient DNA
Ancient DNA is DNA isolated from ancient specimens. It can be also loosely described as any DNA recovered from biological samples that have not been preserved specifically for later DNA analyses...
(that is DNA recovered from archaeological finds like bones and teeth) places the Przewalski's Horse in the middle of the domesticated horses, but more recent mitochondrial DNA analysis suggests that the Przewalski and the modern domestic horse diverged some 160,000 years ago.
Population
The world population of these horses are all descended from 9 of the 31 horses in captivity in 1945. These nine horses were mostly descended from approximately 15 captured around 1900. A cooperative venture between the Zoological Society of LondonZoological Society of London
The Zoological Society of London is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats...
and Mongolian scientists has resulted in successful reintroduction of these horses from zoo
Zoo
A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....
s into their natural habitat in Mongolia; and as of 2011 there is an estimated free-ranging population of over 300 in the wild. The total number of these horses according to a 2005 census was about 1,500.
Appearance
Przewalski's Horse is stockily built in comparison to domesticated horses, with shorter legs. Typical height is about , length is about 2.1 m (6.9 ft). They weigh around 300 kilograms (661.4 lb). The coat is generally dunDun gene
The dun gene is a dilution gene that affects both red and black pigments in the coat color of a horse. The dun gene has the ability to affect the appearance of all black, bay, or chestnut -based horses to some degree by lightening the base body coat and suppressing the underlying base color to the...
in color with pangaré
Pangaré
Pangaré is a coat trait found in some domestic horses that features pale hair around the eyes and muzzle and underside of the body. These pale areas can extend up to the flanks, throat and chest, behind the elbows, in front of the stifle, and up the buttock. Animals with the pangaré trait are...
features, varying from dark brown around the mane (which stands erect) to pale brown on the flanks and yellowish-white on the belly and around the muzzle. The legs of Przewalski's Horse are often faintly striped, also typical of primitive markings
Primitive markings
Primitive markings among domestic horses are a group of hair coat markings and qualities associated with primitive breeds, and the dun coat color family in particular. All dun horses possess at least the dorsal stripe but the presence of the other primitive markings varies...
. The tail is about 90 cm (35.43 in) long, with a longer dock
Rump (animal)
The rump or croup, in the external morphology of an animal, is the portion of the posterior dorsum that is posterior to the loins and anterior to the tail. Anatomically, the rump corresponds to the sacrum....
and shorter hair than seen in domesticated horses.
Behavior
In the wild, Przewalski's Horses live in social groups consisting of a dominant stallion, a dominant lead mare, other mares, and their offspring. The patterns of their daily lives exhibit horse behavior
Horse behavior
Horse behavior is best understood from the perspective that horses are prey animals with a well-developed fight-or-flight instinct. Their first response to a threat is to flee, although they are known to stand their ground and defend themselves or their offspring in cases where flight is...
similar to that of feral horse
Feral horse
A feral horse is a free-roaming horse of domesticated ancestry. As such, a feral horse is not a wild animal in the sense of an animal without domesticated ancestors. However, some populations of feral horses are managed as wildlife, and these horses often are popularly called "wild" horses...
herds. Each group has a well-defined home range; within the range, the herd travels between three and six miles a day, spending time grazing, drinking, using salt lick
Salt lick
A mineral lick is a natural mineral deposit where animals in nutrient-poor ecosystems can obtain essential mineral nutrients...
s and dozing. At night, the herd clusters and sleeps for about four hours. Ranges of different herds may overlap without conflict, as the stallions are more protective of their mares than their territory.
Stallions practice a form of scent marking and will establish piles of dung at intervals along routes they normally travel to warn other males of their presence. In addition, when a female in the herd urinates, the stallion will frequently urinate in the same place, to signal her membership in the herd to other males. The stallions can frequently be seen sniffing dung piles to confirm scent markings.
History
In the 15th century, Johann SchiltbergerJohann Schiltberger
Johann Schiltberger was a German traveller and writer. He was born of a noble family, probably at Hollern near Lohhof halfway between Munich and Freising.- Travels:...
recorded one of the first European sightings of the horses in the journal of his trip to Mongolia as a prisoner of the Mongol Khan
Khan (title)
Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...
. The horse is named after the Russian colonel Nikolai Przhevalsky
Nikolai Przhevalsky
Nikolai Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky and Prjevalsky, ; —), was a Russian geographer of Polish background and explorer of Central and Eastern Asia. Although he never reached his final goal, Lhasa in Tibet, he travelled through regions unknown to the west, such as northern Tibet, modern Qinghai and...
(1839–1888) (the name is of Polish origin and "Przewalski" is the Polish spelling). He was the explorer and naturalist who first described the horse in 1881, after having gone on an expedition to find it, based on rumors of its existence. Many of these horses were captured around 1900 by Carl Hagenbeck
Carl Hagenbeck
Carl Hagenbeck was a merchant of wild animals who supplied many European zoos, as well as P.T. Barnum. He is often considered the father of the modern zoo because he introduced "natural" animal enclosures that included recreations of animals' native habitats without bars...
and placed in zoos. As noted above, about twelve to fifteen reproduced and formed today's population.
The native population declined in the 20th century due to a combination of factors, with the wild population in Mongolia dying out in the 1960s. The last herd was sighted in 1967 and the last individual horse in 1969. Expeditions after this failed to locate any horses, and the species was designated "extinct in the wild" for over 30 years.
After 1945 only two captive populations in zoos remained, in Munich
Tierpark Hellabrunn
Hellabrunn Zoo is a zoological garden in the Bavarian capital of Munich. The zoo is situated on the right bank of the river Isar, in the southern part of Munich near the quarter of Thalkirchen...
and in Prague
Prague Zoo
Prague Zoo is a zoo in Prague, Czech Republic. It was opened in 1931 with the goal to "advance the study of zoology, protect wildlife, and educate the public" in the district of Troja in the north of Prague. The zoo occupies 45 hectares and houses about 4,400 animals that represent 670 species...
. The most valuable group, in Askania Nova, Ukraine, was shot by German soldiers during World War II occupation, and the group in the USA had died out.
By the end of the 1950s, only 12 individual Przewalski horses were left in the world.
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
, the Netherlands, by Jan and Inge Bouman, which started a program of exchange between captive populations in zoos throughout the world to reduce inbreeding
Inbreeding
Inbreeding is the reproduction from the mating of two genetically related parents. Inbreeding results in increased homozygosity, which can increase the chances of offspring being affected by recessive or deleterious traits. This generally leads to a decreased fitness of a population, which is...
, and later starting a breeding program of its own. As a result of such efforts, the extant herd has retained a far greater genetic diversity than its genetic bottleneck made likely.
In 1992, sixteen horses were released into the wild in Mongolia, followed by additional animals later on. One of the areas to which they were reintroduced became Khustain Nuruu National Park
Khustain Nuruu National Park
Khustain Nuruu National Park , located in Tov Province , is a national park of Mongolia. It is also known as Hustai National Park. The Tuul River runs through the park....
in 1998. Another reintroduction site is Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area
Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area
Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area is a nature reserve in Gobi desert, situated in the southeastern part of Mongolia at the border to China. A smiliar reserve in a drier part of the Gobi exists further to the east with Great Gobi A Strictly Protected Area....
, located at the fringes of the Gobi desert.
The reintroduced horses successfully reproduced, and the status of the animal was changed from "extinct in the wild" to "endangered" in 2005. On the IUCN Red List
IUCN Red List
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species...
, they were reclassified from "extinct in the wild" to "critically endangered" after a reassessment in 2008 and from "critically endangered" to "endangered" after a 2011 reassessment.
Preservation efforts
The world's largest captive breeding program for Przewalski's horses is at the Askania Nova preserve in Ukraine. Several dozen Przewalski's horses were also released in the area evacuated after the Chernobyl accident, which now serves as a deserted de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
natural preserve. An intensely researched population of free-ranging animals was also introduced to the Hortobágy
Hortobágy
Hortobágy is both the name of a village in Hajdú-Bihar county and an 800 km² national park in Eastern Hungary, rich with folklore and cultural history. The park, a part of the Alföld , was designated as a national park in 1973 , and elected among the World Heritage sites in 1999...
puszta
Puszta
Puszta is a steppe biome on the Great Hungarian Plain around the River Tisza in the eastern part of Hungary as well as on the western part of Hungary and in the Austrian Burgenland. The Hungarian puszta is an enclave of the Eurasian Steppe....
in Hungary; data on social structure, behavior, and diseases gathered from these animals is used to improve the Mongolian conservation effort.
Several American zoos also collaborated in breeding Equus ferus przewalskii from 1979 to 1982. Recent advances in equine reproductive science in the USA also have potential to further preserve and expand the gene pool. In October 2007, scientists at the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo successfully reversed a vasectomy
Vasectomy
Vasectomy is a surgical procedure for male sterilization and/or permanent birth control. During the procedure, the vasa deferentia of a man are severed, and then tied/sealed in a manner such to prevent sperm from entering into the seminal stream...
on a Przewalski horse — the first operation of its kind on this species and possibly the first ever on any endangered species. While normally a vasectomy may be performed on an endangered animal under limited circumstances, particularly if an individual has already produced many offspring and its genes are overrepresented in the population, scientists realized the animal in question was one of the most genetically valuable Przewalski horses in the North American breeding program.
The Przewalski's Horse Reintroduction Project of China was initiated in 1985 when the country introduced 11 wild horses from overseas. After more than two decades of dedicated efforts, the Xinjiang Wild Horse Breeding Center managed to breed a large number of the horses, of which 55 were let loose into the Kalamely Mountain
Kalamely Mountain
Some 40 kilometers from Charcurt Town and 310 kilometers down the National Highway No. 216 in Xinjiang....
area. The animals quickly adapted to their new environment. In 1988, six foals were born and survived. In 2001 there were over 100 horses at the center. Now both their reproduction rate and survival rate are the highest in the world.
See also
- KonikKonikThe Konik or Polish primitive horse is a small horse, a kind of semi-feral horse, originating in Poland. The Polish word konik is the diminutive of koń, the Polish word for "horse" . However, the name "konik" or "Polish konik" is used to refer to certain specific breeds...
- Dzungarian GateDzungarian GateThe Dzungarian Gate is a geographically and historically significant mountain pass between China and Central Asia. It has been described as the "one and only gateway in the mountain-wall which stretches from Manchuria to Afghanistan, over a distance of three thousand miles." Given its association...
- Feral horseFeral horseA feral horse is a free-roaming horse of domesticated ancestry. As such, a feral horse is not a wild animal in the sense of an animal without domesticated ancestors. However, some populations of feral horses are managed as wildlife, and these horses often are popularly called "wild" horses...
- Mongolian domestic horseMongolian horseThe Mongol horse is the native horse breed of Mongolia. The breed is purported to be largely unchanged since the time of Genghis Khan. Nomads living in the traditional Mongol fashion still hold more than 3 million animals, which outnumber the country's human population...
- Mongolian Wild AssMongolian Wild AssThe Mongolian Wild Ass is a subspecies of the Onager. It may be synonymous with the Gobi Kulan, Chigetai or Dziggetai...
- ReintroductionReintroductionReintroduction is the deliberate release of a species into the wild in zones formerly inhabited by said species but where it has disappeared from for a number of reasons, from captivity or relocated from other areas where the species still survives in...
- Wild horseWild HorseThe wild horse is a species of the genus Equus, which includes as subspecies the domesticated horse as well as the undomesticated Tarpan and Przewalski's Horse. The Tarpan became extinct in the 19th century, and Przewalski's Horse was saved from the brink of extinction and reintroduced...
External links
- ARKive - images and movies of the Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus przewalskii)
- Details of the re-introduction program for Przewalski's horse.
- Umbrella organization of all institutions participating in the reintroduction of takhis in Mongolia
- General studbook of Przewalski's horse
- http://www.welcome2mongolia.com/travel-and-tourism-of-mongolia/mongolia-travel/financial-losses-puts-at-risk-chinese-program-of-reintroducing-przewalskis-horses