Przewalski's Horse
/ or [] with
Polish pronunciation, also known as the
Mongolian Wild Horse, or
Takhi, is the closest living relative of the
Domestic Horse. Poliakov, who concluded that the animal was a wild horse species, gave it the official name
Equus przewalskii (Poliakov 1881). However, authorities differ about the correct classification. Some hold it is a separate species, the last remnant of
Equus ferus, others hold it is a subspecies of
Equus caballus. The question will only be answered with finality if or when the common ancestor from which domestic and Przewalski's horses diverged is determined.
["Przewalski's Horse," Smithsonian National Zoological Park, accessed June 25, 2006] Although the Przewalski's horse has 66 chromosomes, compared to 64 in a domestic horse, the Przewalski's horse and the domestic horse are the only
equids that cross-breed and produce fertile offspring, possessing 65 chromosomes.
[The American Museum of Natural History When Is a Wild Horse Actually a Feral Horse?]As of
2005, the world population of these horses was about 1,500, all descended from 31 horses that were in captivity in
1945, mostly descended from approximately 15 captured around
1900. A cooperative venture between the Zoological Society of London and Mongolian Scientists has resulted in successful reintroduction of these horses from
zoos into their natural habitat in
Mongolia, and as of 2005 there is a free-ranging population of 248 animals in the wild.
The horse is named after Russian General
Nikolai Przhevalsky (Przewalski) (
1839–
1888) who was also an explorer and naturalist (the "Przewalski" spelling is actually
Polish). He described the horse in
1881, after having gone on an expedition to find it, based on rumours of its existence. Many 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 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.
In
1977, the "Foundation for the Preservation and Protection of the Przewalski Horse" was founded, 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. In
1992, sixteen horses were released into the wild in
Mongolia, followed by additional animals later on. These reintroduced horses successfully reproduced, and the status of the animal was changed from "extinct in the wild" to "endangered" in 2005.
The area to which they were reintroduced became
Hustai National Park in
1998.
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.
Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl devotes an entire chapter to the Przewalski's horses of Chernobyl.
Three of these horses now graze in a 49,000 square meter paddock in the
Clocaenog Forest in
North Wales,
UK, on the site of a former
Neolithic or
Iron Age settlement. They were introduced there in
2004. The
Forestry Commission hopes they will help recreate scenes from the Iron Age when these horses roamed Britain freely.
[ Forestry Commission. 2004. FC Wales turns clock back thousands of years with 'wild' solution to looking after ancient forest site. News release, No: 7001, 16 September 2004. [1]]Przewalski's Horse is stockily built in comparison to domesticated horses, with shorter legs. Typical height is about 13
hands, length is about 2.1 m with a 90 cm tail. They weigh around 350 kg. The coat varies from dark brown around the mane (which stands erect) to pale brown on the flanks and yellowish-white on the belly, similar to
Dun coloration in domestic horses. The legs of the Przewalski's Horse are often faintly striped [
2] [
3], suggesting a possible shared distant evolutionary link to the
zebra.
In the wild, Przewalski's Horses live in social groups consisting of a dominant male, several mares, and their offspring. 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 licks, dozing, and taking mud baths. At night, the herd clusters and sleeps for about four hours.
Fillies and colts both leave their natal groups as they reach sexual maturity, usually driven out by the dominant stallion. Fillies generally look for a new herd to join, after which they will begin to reproduce. Colts usually find one another and spend a year or two in small
bachelor herds. At around age 5, a stallion will leave the bachelor herd and attempt to take over an existing herd by challenging the dominant stallion, or by "stealing" one or more mares from another stallion's harem, or by gathering unattached fillies.
The unique characteristics of the horse itself made it particularly valuable to hunters. The horse would eat grass, and the chlorophyll would release from the chloroplasts inside their mouths, creating a thick green mucus stored in the back of their throats. Hunters would kill the horses for the mucus, as it was thought to cure a virus circulating at the time of the rapid declination of the species.
* www.takhi.org [
4]
* Equid Specialist Group 1996.
Equus ferus. In: IUCN 2004. 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
. Downloaded on 24 December 2005. [5]
* Equid Specialist Group 1996. Equus ferus ssp. przewalskii. In: IUCN 2004. 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. . Downloaded on 16 February 2006. [6]
* Forestry Commission. 2004. FC Wales turns clock back thousands of years with 'wild' solution to looking after ancient forest site. News release, No: 7001, 16 September 2004. [7]
* International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. 2003. Opinion 2027 (Case 3010). Usage of 17 specific names based on wild species which are pre-dated by or contemporary with those based on domestic animals (Lepidoptera, Osteichthyes, Mammalia): conserved. Bull.Zool.Nomencl., 60:81-84. [8].
* Ishida, N., Oyunsuren, T., Mashima, S., Mukoyama, H., and Saitou, N. J Mol Evol. 1995. Mitochondrial DNA sequences of various species of the genus Equus with special reference to the phylogenetic relationship between Przewalskii's wild horse and domestic horse. Journal of molecular evolution; 41(2): 180â€"188. [9]
* Jansen, T., Forster, P., Levine, M.A., Oelke, H., Hurles, M., Renfrew, C., Weber, J., and Olek, K. 2002. Mitochondrial DNA and the origins of the domestic horse. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America; 99(16): 10905â€"10910. [10]
* Wakefield, S., Knowles, J., Zimmermann, W. and Van Dierendonck, M. 2002. Status and action plan for the Przewalski's Horse (Equus ferus przewalski). In: P.D. Moehlman (ed.) Equids: Zebras, Asses and Horses. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan, pp. 82-92. IUCN/SSC Equid Specialist Group. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. [11]* Mongolian domestic horse
* Wild horse
* Tarpan
*ARKive - images and movies of the Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus przewalskii)
*Details of the re-introduction program for Przewalski's horse.
*Breeding an reintroduction program of the Przewalski's horse at Zoo Hellabrunn Munich
*Details of the history and captive breeding program for Przewalski's Horse.
