<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/10/przewalskis-horses-only-wild-species-return-central-asian-steppes-kazakhstan>
"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."
Via
Positive.News
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
