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News Bites The Wild Ones

The latest noteworthy When it comes to our equines, we don’t IMPACT
news from around horse around. Majestic Przewalski’s hors-
Brookfield Zoo and
beyond the gates is es have long been part of the animals
right at your fingertips.
living at Brookfield Zoo. Recently, female
PHROZRESWE ALSKI’S
10-year-olds Sofia and Solongo arrived to move in with
6 GATEWAYS | NEWS BITES
current mares Stormy and Brandy. Both newcomers

were born at Canyon Colorado Equid Sanctuary in New

Mexico and subsequently came to us from the Center

for Species Survival at the Smithsonian Conservation

Biology Institute.

“Species survival” is certainly part of the story of these

stocky but adorable horses. (First, though, the name.

Przewalski’s horses—pronounced shuh-VAHL-skeez—

are named for the Russian colonel and explorer, Nickolai

Przhevalsky, who first described them in the late 19th

century. They are also known as Asian wild horses.) In

the early 1900s, a seller of exotic animals captured most

of the horses, and the few populations still remaining

in the wild faltered due to hunting and habitat loss. By

the 1950s, only a dozen horses remained. Every single

Przewalski’s horse living today traces its genealogy back

to 12 original founders.

Thanks to collaborative breeding programs around

the globe, Przewalski’s horse numbers have climbed

back to more than 1,500, with several hundred

reintroduced to their native habitat in Mongolia. Once

designated extinct in the wild by the International

Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), today their

classification has been upgraded to endangered.

Unlike American mustangs and the Australian

brumbies, which are considered wild but actually

are the now-wild offspring of domesticated animals,

Przewalski’s horses have never been domesticated, so

they are the only surviving true wild horses.

In North America, 134 of these horses live in 22

institutions. Brookfield Zoo is not a breeding site for

the Przewalski’s Horse Species Survival Plan of the

Association of Zoos and Aquariums, but we provide

a home for horses whose DNA is not needed to help

diversify the Przewalski’s horse gene pool, as well as

horses ready for retirement.

Przewalski’s horses are hardy animals, and you can

see our four mares year-round outdoors in their 31st

Street yard. Sofia is a follower, meandering where the

other horses go. Solongo can be skittish around people

but becomes brave when she is competing for food.