UPDATE – Unfortunately this conservation effort has been put on hold until relations with Russia improve and the war between Russia and Ukraine ends.

While the relationship between the United States and Russia is a hot topic in our nation’s capital, the El Paso Zoo and the Minnesota Zoo continue to move forward in supporting collaborative efforts with Russia in helping to save one of the rarest large animals in the world, the Przewalski’s wild horse.  

Recently Zoo officials met with staff from the Minnesota Zoo where one of El Paso’s Przewalski’s wild horses has been waiting over the past year to be sent to Russia.  Travel arrangements to Russia had to be canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.  As international travel restrictions improve new travel plans to ship Misha are in the works.  The El Paso Zoo’s first filly Przewalski’s horse was born in 2018 and transferred to Minnesota last year.   She will join seven other horses to live in prime horse habitat at the Orenburg Reserve in Russia, located in the Preduralskaya Steppe.  

The Przewalski’s wild horse went extinct in the wild during the 1960s.   Today the El Paso Zoo is part of an international program to save the species by supporting efforts to release captive born horses back into their former habitats.  Two Przewalski’s horses have been born at the Zoo.  Reintroduction efforts are also underway in China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.  Today, there are about 1,900 Przewalski’s horses living in captivity or in the wild at one of several reintroduction sites. The total wild population is estimated to be between 400-500.

The Przewalski’s horse as a subspecies of the extinct Equus ferus. Mitochondrial research has shown that the species is not the ancestor of modern domestic horses. Compared to domestic horses the mane is short and erect, forelocks are nearly nonexistent and there is a dark stripe that runs from the mane down the spine to the tail.

The primary threat to reintroduced populations is the small population size, limited distribution in the wild, potential hybridization with domestic horses and competition for resources with domestic horses and other livestock.

Photos: Courtesy of the Minnesota Zoo
Cover: El Paso Zoo photo, Przewalski’s horse family in the Asia Grasslands Exhibit