The Przewalski’s horse is the only known surviving wild equine native to the arid desert prairie regions in Central Asia, specifically Outer Mongolia and China.
The critically endangered subspecies of wild horse is named after the Russian geographer and explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky who officially report the herd in 1876 in the Takhiin Shar Nuruu Mountain area of the Dzungarian Basin in Xinjiang. Many of these horses were captured around 1900 by Carl Hagenbeck, a wild animal merchant, and sold to zoos in Europe. Unlike other “wild” horses such as the American Mustang or the Australian Brumby, which are essentially feral horses which have escaped or been turned loose from domesticated stock, the Przewalski’s horse has never been domesticated and remains a truly wild animal whether it is on a steppe or in a zoo. In the Lascaux cave of south-west France, Paleolithic cave paintings abound, dating back to 17,000 b.c. They host nearly 2,000 figures, which can be classified into three main categories: animals, humans and abstract signs. Of 900 animal images, equines outnumber the rest; they account for 364 depictions. The primitive horse representations bear a close resemblance to the Przewalski’s horse in terms of the classic dun coat and white belly, testifying to the fact that the breed was plentiful in Europe in the prehistoric era. However, significant changes in ecosystems at the end of the last ice age contributed to their habitat destruction. In the first half of the 20th century, increased hunting and poaching, and competition for grazing with domestic livestock further added to the hazards, sending the species to the brink of extinction. The Przewalski’s horse stands about 13 hands (132 cm) high and, like the Mongolian horse, is still considered a horse not a pony. As a truly wild horse, the muscular animal bears a number of characteristic primitive markings: dun coat, bold dorsal strip running down the spine from ears to tail, up to 10 black stripes on the back of the lower legs and tail guard hair in coat colour for about 30 cm. The dun coat has a reddish tinge occasionally and finishes with a pale underbelly and muzzle. The animal’s large head is topped by a dark and erect mane, with no forelock.
Conservation of the Przewalski’s Horse
In China, the rare species was last seen in the wild in 1966. With the assistance of the International Rare Animal Protection Association, the Przewalski’s Horse Reintroduction Programme of China was initiated in 1985 when 11 wild horses from East Germany and England were reintroduced.
Since then, a dedicated breeding programme was launched. In early 2020, the population of the truly wild equid was around 2,000, and of these over 600 were in China. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources has reclassified the horses from “extinct in the wild” to “endangered”.
The reintroduction programme is however not without challenges. The species lacks genetic diversity. All the Przewalski’s horses alive today are offspring of the 14 wild horses captured by Carl Hagenbeck in the 19th century, which means close relatives were forced to breed. Inbreeding results in the Przewalski’s horse having lower levels of genetic variation than other equids, leading to low survivorship, poor sperm quality and greater vulnerability to disease. Worse, under long-term confinement, the horse exhibits degeneration of wild instincts in such areas as the teeth and running speed, affecting its ability to acclimatize to the rigours of the Dzungarian Basin’s climate, according to Cao Jie, director of the Xinjiang Wild Horse Reproduction and Research Centre. Habitat degradation is also a concern. The Przewalski’s horse had disappeared in the wild for over three decades. Even though the horses have returned to their ancestral geographical range, the ecological environment now is totally different from what it once was. The Kalamaili Mountains encompass a vast expanse of territory ranging from burning desert to snowy mountains, with scarce forage and water sources available for a group of endemic ungulates that nevertheless finds the unique natural landscape to its liking. The winters are so harsh and frigid that a snow layer can develop up to a metre thick, making the search for food more difficult. In addition, global warming has caused the climate to become more extreme in recent years. Released horses are often found dead after frosts or blizzards, despite the provision of relief food and water by the conservation centre. A highway runs through the middle of the reserve, which affects the ecology and environment adversely, and what is even more frustrating is that the horses are also accidentally killed by trucks. Another inhabitant of the area is the nomadic Turkic Kazak. These people rely on the Kalamaili Mountains for the survival of their herds and their own livelihood. Peaceful co-existence of the nomadic pastoral society and the area’s endemic wildlife is difficult. The nomads’ 200,000-plus livestock add further pressure on the grassy reserve as they mow across it twice a year. The nomads’ domestic horses will probably mate with the Przewalski’s horses, whose precious genes will be diluted as a result. Many Kazaks, nevertheless, support the conservation programme, in particular the elders who missed the Przewalski’s horses which they knew once roamed in the area.
Unlike the Outer Mongolian government, which bought up the relatively small numbers of the nomads’ livestock and put them in a reserve, employing the nomads to patrol it, the Chinese government cannot make the same arrangements in the Kalamaili Mountains for the Kazaks as there are far too many of them and their herds. Professor Hu Defu of Beijing Forestry University explains that if the nomads’ traditional way of living is to change, they first need to be given an alternative means of existence. Otherwise, it will be the nomads rather than the Przewalski’s horses which face a survival crisis. The road ahead for the Przewalski’s horse will be long and daunting, and will require substantial and continual effort.
The Horses of China 