The first wild horse was born through IVF

The horse belongs to the Przewalski wild horse breed, produced by artificial insemination by the Smithsonian Biological Conservation Institute (SCBI), which has opened new hopes for the conservation of rare animals.

Dolores Reed, a researcher from SCBI, said: ' Mother horses had a normal pregnancy lasting 340 days and the reproductive process took 10 minutes'. This is the result after seven years of research.

The horse was born through in vitro fertilization.(Photo: Redorbit)

Initially scientists had to tame wild horses. They train them to get urine samples, then collect sperm from male horses.

At the same time, they must monitor the horrmone concentration of the mare and its oestrous cycle. Since then, there are suitable calculations for successful fertilization process.

Learning from previous unsuccessful artificial insemination, in this study scientists decided to shorten the sperm's distance.

Reed explained that with a small amount of Przewalski horses in nature can lead to inbreeding.

Artificial insemination will help diversify genetic resources, while helping animals to develop and maintain the race, this method is also safe and limits the costs incurred by transporting wild horses to mating.

Przewalski wild horses were warned of extinction 44 years ago. By 2008 there were about 500 horses of this species living in the wild and 1,500 live in zoos and conservation areas, but it is difficult to develop this horse population by natural fertilization.