Wild Encountering with the Last “Man’s Messengers to the Gods”

"In the majestic Mongolian landscape, where the vast grasslands meet the endless dunes, herds of horses rove. Neither tethered nor constrained by fencing, they run and graze on the arid, windswept steppes..." —Jane Palmer

I am leaving tomorrow and will reach the fantastic land of Mongolia 2 days later... If you don't know this already, Mongolia is a land-locked country in East Asia, sandwiched between China to the south and Russia to the north. It is is the 18th-largest (roughly half the size of Europe) and the most sparsely populated unitary sovereign state in the world, with a population of around 3 million people. Excited and humbled at the same time, I am about to meet the last Man’s messengers to the Gods —The last wild horses on Earth.

The Mongolian Przewalski's horses, known locally as Takhis (‘spirit’ horses), are the last few and wildest (genetically) horses on the planet. Most "wild" horses today, such as the American Mustang or the Australian Brumby, are actually feral horses descended from domesticated animals that escaped and adapted to life in the wild. The Przewalski's horse may never have been domesticated and has long been considered the only true wild horse extant in the world today.

They were extinct in the wild in the 50s with just 31 Takhis that survived in captivity. 12 of which were bred. In 1947, a wild mare was caught in Mongolia, bringing the breeding population up to 13 individuals, from which all Takhis alive today are descended.

They’re endangered with maybe 2000 left in the World. This is a sobering reminder of the impact of Man on all species and of the undergoing 6th mass extinction. And for me, this is the opportunity to be for a few weeks with the people who reintroduced them in Hustai National Park, and now care and fight for the success of the reintroduction of a species struggling with climate change, land use, overgrazing and human-wildlife conflict, and too many other human-driven factors. Why is it important to spend time, the effort, the resources to protect them? Because their protection is tied to the ecological health of the steppes - habitats (grasslands) that play a critical role in net-primary production and comprise the most endangered terrestrial ecosystems...

So, I’ll be out of reach, helping with the monitoring of this ancient species, recording species, gathering work material about reintroduction conservation, citizen science, wildlife ethics, and so much more.

Stay tuned, when transiting between places over there, I might be able to sneak in on EwA’s social media and share a few pics of this wonderful far away and remote land!

→ Read original EwA Article 

Read more about the Takhi and its habitat

→ Foundation for the Preservation and Protection of the Przewalski Horse —Today, Przewalski horses prosper in Hustai National Park. They display their natural group-behavior, stand the harsh winters, protect their young from wolves and produce offspring. Once this viable population was secured, the current programme’s activities are concentrated on the park’s protection and to help ascertain a novel and durable relationship between man and the Przewalski horse.

→ The World's Last Truly Wild Horse is Making a Comeback (Jane Palmer, BBC 2015) —Most of the horses we think of as "wild" are just domestic horses gone feral. There is only one type of horse that remains utterly wild...

→ The Remarkable Comeback of Przewalski’s Horse (Paige Williams, Smithsoninan 2016) —Once nearly extinct, the population of these wild horses has rebounded on the dusty steppes of Mongolia.

→ Ecology and Conservation of Steppes and Semi-Natural Grasslands (Valkó Orsolya, 2016 in Hacquetia vol.15 no.2)
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September 19^th, 2018

The banner photo shows a family of Takhis (© L'irrésistible silhouette bleue) 

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Posted on 19 September, 2018 20:52 by akilee