World’s Last Wild Horses Brought Back from the Brink
The Przewalski’s horse of Mongolia’s Gobi desert–considered the world’s only remaining, “true” wild horse–has had its share of existential challenges over the centuries. Once considered “extinct in the wild”, due primarily to habitat loss, the horse’s status has been upgraded recently to “critically endangered”, based upon criteria set by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (UICN) in Switzerland.
The “upgrade” requires that at least fifty mature individuals be “free-living” in the wild for a minimum of five years. There have been previous attempts to reintroduce the horse (Equus ferus przewalskii) to the Central Asian steppe country from China’s zoos (going back to 1985), but these were considered unsuccessful. Now, after assessments of two horse projects–one at Hustai (Khustain) National Park (with 171 horses living on their own, as of 2006) and the other at Takhin Tal (with 115 horses, as of 2007)–ecologists and wildlife conservationist are confident enough in the animals’ chances for long-term survival to make the official announcement (via a report presented at the Society for Conservation Biology in Beijing, in early November, 2009).
In a November 13 news report in Science (‘Hope for Mongolian Horses’), veterinarian Chris Walzer of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna states a figure of 140 individuals as being a “robust starting population” for the horse’s to make a viable go at long-term survival. Citing a 58% foal (young off-spring) survival rate at the Takhin Tal Nature Reserve, Walzer and his research team believe this is a sufficient percentage to maintain the population through the harsh desert winter and beyond. Winter is the most challenging time for the horses as the thick snow cover makes finding food difficult.
An additional challenge comes from local, livestock herders who drive the horses out of their natural grazing grounds to make room for their grazing stocks (primarily goats and sheep). To counter this, researchers have resorted to paying the herdsmen to keep their animals off the reserve. So far, it seems to be working. And although the animal is still critically endangered, bringing a rare species back from the brink of extinction is no small feat, and this is reason enough to be cautiously hopeful.
Unlike the American Mustang, which is actually a feral horse (having escaped from domestication), the Przewalski’s horse has never been domesticated successfully, and is thus considered truly “wild”.
photo credit: Jeff Kubina cc-by-sa
