ALTYN DALA, Kazakhstan: Przewalski’s horses have returned to the steppes of Kazakhstan after nearly 200 years, part of an ambitious scheme to reintroduce the world’s last wild horses to their original habitats.
The endangered sandy brown horses once roamed across Central Asia. They were named after Russian geographer Nikolai Przewalski who discovered them in the late 19th century, by which time their range had been reduced to only one part of western Mongolia.
Now, the Prague Zoo in the Czech Republic, which manages the studbook for the species, wants to begin returning them to the Altyn Dala, or Golden Steppe, region of central Kazakhstan, a vast area of grassland and wetlands covering some 7,000 sq km.
In early June, the first group of seven arrived. Around another 40 are planned for the next five years.
“These are the first wild horses which have touched soil in the steppes of central Kazakhstan in hundreds of years,” said Prague Zoo director Miroslav Bobek.
“We still have a long way to go, but this was a historic moment.”
