(Photo courtesy of Google Images)

A Przewalski horse is the only remaining, truly wild horse in the world.

Some might say, "Well what about the American Mustangs and the Australian Brumbies?"

Both mustangs and brumbies are horses that were once domesticated but escaped and reverted to a wild status.

A Przewalski horse does follow the patterns of brumbies and mustangs in their social habits.

They live in social groups consisting of a dominant stallion, a dominant lead mare, other mares and their offsprings. Wild horse herds travel between three to six miles a day.

This horse is stocky built in comparison to the domesticated horses we use today. They also have much shorter legs.

The color of their coat is similar to the dun color in domesticated horses. The coat varies from dark brown around the mane to pale brown on the flanks and yellowish white on the belly.

The legs on a Przewalski may have very faint strips. Their mane stands erect; it does not flow over the neck area like that of a domesticated horse.

So how did the Przewalski horse get its name?

The Przewalski horse was named after the horses were rediscovered by Colonel Nicolai Przewalski. He was an explorer and naturalist who described the horse in 1881, after having gone on an expedition to find it, based on rumors of its existence.

The Przewalski horse originated in Mongolia and is also known as a "Takh." Takh is what Mongolians called the wild horse.

This horse has never been domesticated successfully.

The history behind the horse

The native population declined in the 20th century due to a combination of factors, with the wild population in Mongolia dying out in the 1960s. The last herd was sighted in 1967 and the last individual horse in 1969. Expeditions after this failed to locate any horses, and the species was designated "extinct in the wild" for over 30 years.

After 1945 only two captive populations in zoos remained: in Munich and in Prague Zoo.

In 1977, a foundation was formed by Jan and Inge Bouman to start a breeding program that exchanged horses between captive populations in zoos throughout the world to reduce inbreeding.

In 1992, sixteen horses were released into the wild in Mongolia, followed by additional animals later on. These reintroduced horses successfully reproduced, and the status of the animal was changed from "extinct in the wild" to "endangered" in 2005.

The area to which they were reintroduced became Khustain Nuruu National Park in 1998.

In 2005, the world population of these horses was about 1,500, with about 240 of them free-ranging in the wild.

On the Net:

Foundation for the Preservation and Protection of the Przewalski Horse -- http://www.treemail.nl/takh/index.htm