The wild horse Przewalski echoes the prairie

In the prairie prairie meadows in Mongolia, Przewalski wild horses are leisurely strolling and grazing. Since 1960, this rare species has been listed as a highly endangered animal of the Red Book.

Przewalski's horse was named after the Russian explorer Nikolai Mikhailovich Przewalski, who first discovered them around 1880 in the Gobi desert area.

'They can detect danger from a distance of 300 meters and run away immediately,' said Ms. Sun Zhicheng, an employee at the Ho Tay National Nature Reserve. Currently there are 27 Przewalski horses living here. They are the result of a long process of conservation and protection efforts of the Reserve since 2010.

Przewalski horses on the steppe savannah

An adult Przewalski horse weighs about 250-300kg, 1m30 high. This brown horse has a characteristic short neck. In particular, Przewalski horse has 66 chromosomes instead of 64 as other horses. The main food of this prairie horse is grass and some special plants. In winter, when plants do not grow, staff at the reserve will feed them dry grass, beans and corn.

There are about 2,000 Przewalsi horses living in the Mongolian steppe and conservation areas around the world. A quarter of these horses have just been released into the wild by the end of 2011 thanks to the success of pure breeding methods.

According to the International Association for Conservation of Nature, this Mongolian prairie horse has a very large number, even they 'pull together' to Western Europe to live. After centuries of coping with the harsh climate change, Przewalski's horse is now a victim of poachers, making the number plummet.

According to Chinese oral stories, 2,000 years ago, an exiled prisoner saw this wild horse in the area near Dunhuang, where the Silk Road was entrusted. The offender set up a plot to catch a horse to offer to King Han Wu De but failed. Even the king wrote a poem about this strange horse.