Two Centuries Later, Wild Horses Return Home

Two hundred years later, wild horses have returned to their native Kazakhstan.

“This is the beginning of a whole new chapter in the story of the last wild horse on the planet,” says Prague’s zoo director, Miroslav Bobek.

These wild horses, known as Przewalski’s horses, once roamed the grasslands of central Asia but were driven close to extinction in the 1960s. The seven horses just released back into the wild are the descendants of two groups that survived in Munich and Prague zoos for many decades. A similar project occurred in 2011 when Przewalski’s horses were released in Mongolia, which now has a population of 1,500 wild horses. In Kazakhstan, the plan is to transport 40 horses to the country over the next five years – hopefully enough to allow this population to thrive back in its native homeland.