Astana, Mar 1 (EFE).- Several European zoos are taking part in a new international project to return the endangered Przewalski’s horses to their natural habitat in the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan, the NGO Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK) said at a press conference in Astana.
“We have just started writing a new chapter on the return of the last wild horse to nature,” Miroslav Bobek, director of the Prague Zoo, a participant in the project, told a press conference in Astana.
Bobek said that following the successful reintroduction of Przewalski’s horse in Mongolia, where its population is growing, the Kazakh government requested assistance from the Prague Zoo.
“Our plans are to bring about 40 horses over the next five years to Altyn Dala (Kazakh for Golden Steppe),” he said.
According to Bobek, two Czech Air Force CASA C-295 aircraft with eight horses on board will leave Prague and Berlin on 2 June for the Kazakh city of Arkalyk in central Kazakhstan, from where the horses will be released on the steppe.
In addition to the Prague Zoo, the international project involves zoos in Berlin and Nuremberg (Germany) and Hortobágy (Hungary), the Frankfurt Zoological Society (Germany), the Kazakhstan Forestry and Wildlife Committee, and the ASBK.
Przewalski’s horses disappeared completely from the wild in the late 1960s. Special programs in European zoos have created a captive population strong enough to be reintroduced in countries where the species used to live.
It was listed as a rare and endangered animal species in 2021 and is also listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
The steppe territory of the Altyn Dala state nature reserve in the Kostanai region, created in 2012 and measures 489,766 hectares, was chosen as the area to release the horses.
Before they are released, the quadrupeds will stay at the Centre for the Reintroduction of Wild Ungulates on the nature reserve.
The center was created as part of the Altyn Dala environmental initiative and is managed by the ASBK. Since 2017, the center has worked on the reintroduction of the onager, and so already has all the necessary infrastructure and staff to accommodate other Equidae species. EFE