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Equine spirit
Horses play a major part of Mongolian lifestyle and culture,
and although it has no specific role in the life of the average
Mongolian, there is none more special than the Takhi
and the reverence of the people towards them is shown by their
name, which means spirit or spirited. Their national significance
has been dramatically increased by the belief that these were
the horses used by Genghis Khan and his army.
These are the native horses of Mongolia, smaller, and with
more unusual colouring than their domesticated relatives are,
and have been credited with being the only surviving species
of wild horse left in the world. Over the last 100 years they
have come to the brink of extinction, but amazingly have been
saved by European zoos, and are now thriving again in their
natural habitat, but it has been a long battle.
The Takhi, or Przewalski's horse (named after a Polish
explorer who first brought them into Europe), are native exclusively
to Mongolia, and live in the open plains, and semi-desert
of the Mongolian landscape, living off grasses, leaves, barks
and buds. They are typically about four feet in height to
the shoulder, with distinctively large heads, pale colouring,
and dark, erect, zebra-like manes. In the winter they are
an unusual beige colour, which blends into their steppe environment,
with a white back, which fades to a darker colour in the summer
as the snow on the mountain tops melts.
Battle for survival
The threat to these unusual animals has come from increased
competition for pastureland from farmed livestock, and their
shy nature means that they were easily driven away from the
limited water supplies of the semi-desertous landscape. They
are still an endangered species, and prior to re-introduction
programs none had been seen in the wild since 1968, though
a significant number still survived in zoos all over the world.
Breeding in captivity has made it possible for reintroduction
of the species into Mongolia to take place. The main destination
of these animals has been the Khustain Nuruu Reserve,
about 65 miles west of Ulaan Baatar, where fenced acclimatisation
areas allow the horse to become used to their new environment
before they are released into the wild. Despite disastrous
and ill-planned earlier attempts in other areas, this project
has been a relative success, and there are now over 200 Takhi
back in Mongolia.
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