Wild horses return to Kazakhstan steppes after absence of two centuries Seven Przewalski's horses, the only truly wild

Wild horses return to Kazakhstan steppes after absence of two centuries

Seven Przewalski’s horses, the only truly wild species of the animal in the world,

flown to central Asian country from zoos in Europe

Sophie Kevany Mon 10 Jun 2024 12.52 EDT


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/10/przewalskis-horses-only-wild-species-return-central-asian-steppes-kazakhstan?CMP=share_btn_url


A group of the world’s last wild horses have returned to their native Kazakhstan after an absence of about 200 years. The seven horses, four mares from Berlin and a stallion and two other mares from Prague, were flown to the central Asian country on a Czech air force transport plane.

The wild horses, known as Przewalski’s horses, once roamed the vast steppe grasslands of central Asia, where horses are believed to have been first domesticated about 5,500 years ago.

People are known to have been riding and milking horses in northern Kazakhstan nearly 2,000 years before the first records of domestication in Europe. Human activity, including hunting the animals for their meat, as well as road building, which fragmented their population, drove the horses close to extinction in the 1960s.

Filip Mašek, Prague zoo’s spokesperson, said: “These are the only remaining wild horses in the world. Mustangs are domesticated horses that went wild.”

The horses reintroduced into Kazakhstan are descended from two groups that survived in Munich and Prague zoos..........................

The Przewalski’s horses’ grazing will benefit pollinators, small mammals and ground-nesting birds, helping restore the steppes ecosystem. Photograph: D Rosengren/Global Rewilding Alliance