Przewalski’s Horse

The Przewalski’s horse lives in small family groups consisting of a stallion, a few mares, and their offspring. This sturdy equine is a direct descendant of the horses depicted on the walls of prehistoric caves in Europe, dating back between 30,000 and 9,000 years BCE. Despite their genetic proximity to domestic horses, Przewalski’s horses have a unique distinction: they possess 66 chromosomes, compared to 64 in their domesticated counterparts.

Discovered in 1879 by Russian explorer Nikolaï Przewalski, the Przewalski’s horse disappeared from the wild by the late 1960s due to hunting, captures and competition with domestic species. Today, over 1,500 horses live in zoos and reserves, and since the 1990s, reintroduction efforts in Mongolia have allowed more than 300 horses to return to the steppes.