Khustai National Park

Home of the Takhi, or Przewalski's, wild horses 🐴.

The Przewalski’s horse once belonged to the fauna of the Mongolian steppe. Due to a combination of climatic changes, pasture competition and hunting, the populations were drastically reduced in the last century. In 1968, Mongolia’s last free-living Przewalski’s horse was spotted in the Great Gobi SPA. After that, it was considered to be extinct in the wild.

After various campaigns to capture the wild horses at the turn of the 20th century, some European zoos kept the Przewalski’s horse for exhibition.

In the early 1940s, however, there were only 13 fecund animals worldwide. Thereupon, a stud book was created and selective exchange campaigns between zoos, animal parks and private breeding facilities enabled the species to survive and created the greatest possible genetic variability.

Today, the EAZA Ex-situ Programme (EEP) for Przewalski’s horses still selects the individuals that are to be exchanged between zoos or to be transported to Mongolia based on the stud book. Worldwide, there are currently around 2,500 takhi living in zoos and in the wild.

We had the chance to see them, running free through the steppe! Beautiful!

Also, we had the chance to see and to hear several deers in the park.
It's mating season for them and their bellowing was so loud it was almost annoying as we walked through the peace of nature!!Baca lagi