Two Przewalski’s horse foals born in Kazakhstan for the first time in over 200 years
Two Przewalski’s horse foals were born at a reintroduction center in the steppes of Central Kazakhstan in late August. As Mongabay reports, according to available data, these are the first wild horse foals born in Kazakhstan in more than 200 years.
Two males at the reintroduction center
The first foal, a male, was born on August 22 to a seven-year-old mare named Tessa. The second male was born on August 31 to the mare Umbra. Their father was the stallion Zorro, which later died. The foals have not yet been named.
The animals were born in a 56-hectare enclosure at the Alibi Wild Ungulates Reintroduction Center, which is part of the 489,000-hectare Altyn Dala State Nature Reserve. The area is also an important site for restoring populations of saiga antelopes and Asian wild asses, known as kulans.
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Population restoration
Alona Kryvosheieva, conservation director of the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan, told Mongabay that the foals’ birth indicates that the horses have adapted to the local climate and territory. The association’s executive director, Vera Voronova, noted that specialists will now monitor the growth and development of the first generation of Przewalski’s horses born in Kazakhstan.
Over the past three years, 22 Przewalski’s horses have been transported to Kazakhstan from Prague Zoo and Berlin’s Tierpark. Conservationists plan to increase their number to 40, the minimum required to form a self-sustaining wild population.
The Przewalski’s horse, known in Kazakhstan as kertagi, is the only living wild relative of the domestic horse. Under the International Union for Conservation of Nature classification, the species has been listed as endangered since 2011.
