Wild horse of Asia
Media
Part of Panorama
- Title
- Wild horse of Asia
- Identifier
- Pedigreed game
- Language
- English
- Source
- Panorama Volume XII (Issue No. 11) November 1960
- Year
- 1960
- Subject
- Wild horses
- Horse breeds
- Przewalski (breed)
- Russian explorers
- Przewalski, Nicholas M.
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- Pedigreed game WILD HORSE OF ASIA The only surviving true wild horse—the Mongo lian or Przewalski—is go ing the way of the whooping crane. Zoologists believe that the fifty or so animals in zoos around the world now outnum ber those roaming the old Cen tral Asian homeland. It is even suspected that small herds in the wilderness may have inter bred with domestic horses and no longer exist in pure form. To save the species from ex tinction, the director of the Zoological Gardens at Prague, Czechoslovakia, has recently circulated questionnaires to all known owners of Przewalskis, asking for detailed records on their history and characteris tics. The data will provide pedigrees that will be helpful in breeding. The Przewalski was named for a Russian explorer who dis covered the animals while tra veling in Mongolia and north ern Tibet during the eighteenseventies, says the National Geographic Society. /*ol. Nicholas M. Przev walsky (also spelled Prejevalsky) was Czarist army of ficer whose ardent interest in natural history had led him to apply for posts in eastern Sibe ria. In 1870 he obtained permis sion to conduct an expedition across inner Asia for the Rus sian Geographical Society. Among the thousands of speci mens of mammals, birds, rep tiles and fish he collected were the skull and skin of a strange small horse. 26 Panorama In an adventure-filled book published in 1876, Colonel Przewalski reported large herds of the horses running wild on the plains of Tsaidam and be yond in western Mongolia. They were quite shy, he said, and when frightened, would continue a flight for days. Mongol tribesmen told the explorer that although they hunted wild camels of north west Tsaidan for the delicate flesh, the horses were too swift and alert for the chase. The Przewalski wild horse is much smaller than the domes tic animal. A closely related wild horse, now extinct, was the Tarpan. So called from its Tartary roving grounds, this creature had a drab-gray color and less notice able streak. Both horses carried on a re markably organized way of life. The herds, numbering from se veral hundreds to perhaps a thousand, were set up like armies. At the head of each galloped a sultan-stallion, lead er in battle and lord of any mare of his choice. “Lieutefiants” commanded the lower ranks, while restive young stallions served as sen tries. They trotted along on the outskirts of the herds, ready to neigh a piercing warning at the first sign of danger. In a fascinating experiment in back-breeding, the German zoologist brothers, Lutz and Heinz Heck, have succeeded in physically recreating the extinct Tarpan. Bargain Sale A Paris shopkeeper wrote to one of his custo mers: “I can offer you cloth like the enclosed sam ple at 900 francs the meter. In case I don’t hear from you, I shall conclude that you wish to pay only 800 francs. In order to lose no time, I accept the last mentioned price.” * November 1960 27
- pages
- 26-27