Przewalski’s wild horses return to Kazakhstan after 200 years | Wildlife News

The first group of seven horses arrived in Kazakhstan in early June and 40 more are planned over the next five years.

Przewalski’s horses have returned to the steppes of Kazakhstan after almost 200 years as part of an ambitious scheme to reintroduce the world’s last wild horses to their original habitats.

The endangered sandy brown horses once roamed Central Asia. They are named after Russian geographer Nikolay Przewalski, who discovered them in the late 19th century, by which time their range had been reduced to just a part of western Mongolia.

Now, the Prague Zoo in the Czech Republic, which manages the species’ herdbook, wants to start returning them to the Altyn Dala, or Golden Steppe, region of central Kazakhstan, a vast area of ​​grassland and wetlands that covers approximately 7,000 square kilometers (2,700 square miles).

At the beginning of June, the first group of seven arrived. On Thursday, four more landed in Arkalyk. Around 40 more are planned for the next five years.

“This is an event of historical importance, the seven Przewalski that we transported here by two CASA planes represent the first individuals of this species in central Kazakhstan in hundreds of years,” said Prague Zoo Director Miroslav Bobek.

Czech army planes transported the horses – a stallion and six mares – on flights from Prague and Berlin to the Kazakh city of Arkalyk, from where they traveled seven hours by truck, accompanied by zoo staff.

On Thursday morning, a Czech Army CASA aircraft landed in Arkalyk, central Kazakhstan, with four more of Przewalski’s horses. Just before 5pm local time, the mares, Tessa, Wespe, Umbra and Sary, were released into an acclimatization pen in the Altyn Dala area. pic.twitter.com/0NojI1Fqq0

— Prague Zoo (@prague_zoo) June 7, 2024

The horses will stay in an acclimatization enclosure for a year to learn how to find water and food during the harsh steppe winters.

Przewalski’s horses disappeared from the wild in the late 1960s, but remained in captivity.

They have already been reintroduced in China and Western Mongolia, where the population now stands at 850. In Kazakhstan, reintroduction is part of conservation efforts – horses eat a wide variety of grasses, in turn spreading seeds.

“It is very important to have these wild horses,” said Albert Salemgareyev, lead expert at the Association for the Conversation on Biodiversity in Kazakhstan.