Przewalski's horse

Przewalski's horse
Conservation status
Endangered  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
CITES Appendix I (CITES)[2]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Perissodactyla
Family:	Equidae
Genus:	Equus
Species:	E. ferus
Subspecies:	E. f. przewalskii
Trinomial name
Equus ferus przewalskii (I. S. Polyakov, 1881)
Przewalski's horse range (IUCN distribution of Przewalski's horse, where it is extant & reintroduced to 5 disjointed areas in Northern China and Southern Mongolia; missing distribution in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine)
Synonyms
Species Level: Equus przewalskii Polyakov, 1881 Subspecies Level: E. f. hagenbecki Matschie, 1903 E. f. prjevalskii Ewart, 1903 E. f. typicus Max Hilzheimer, 1909

Przewalski's horse (/(p)ʃəˈvɑːlskiːz, ˌpɜːrʒə-/ (p)shə-VAHL-skeez, PUR-zhə-;^[3] Russian: [prʐɨˈvalʲskʲɪj] (Пржевальский); Polish: [pʂɛˈvalskʲi]; Equus ferus przewalskii or Equus przewalskii^[4]), also called the takhi (Mongolian: Тахь),^[5] Mongolian wild horse or Dzungarian horse, is a rare and endangered horse originally native to the steppes of Central Asia. It is named after the Russian geographer and explorer Nikolay Przhevalsky. Once extinct in the wild, since the 1990s it has been reintroduced to its native habitat in Mongolia in the Khustain Nuruu National Park, Takhin Tal Nature Reserve, and Khomiin Tal, as well as several other locales in Central Asia and Eastern Europe.^[1]

Several genetic characteristics of Przewalski's horse differ from what is seen in modern domestic horses, indicating neither is an ancestor of the other. For example, the Przewalski's horse has 33 chromosome pairs, compared to 32 for the domestic horse. Their ancestral lineages split from a common ancestor between 160,000 and 38,000 years ago, long before the domestication of the horse. Przewalski's horse was long considered the only remaining truly wild horse, in contrast with the American mustang and the Australian brumby, which are instead feral horses descended from domesticated animals. That status was called into question when domestic horses of the 5,000-year-old Botai culture of Central Asia were found more closely related to Przewalski's horses than to E. f. caballus. The study raised the possibility that modern Przewalski's horses could be the feral descendants of the domestic Botai horses. However, it remains possible that both the Botai horses and the modern Przewalski's horses descend separately from the same ancient wild Przewalski's horse population. Its taxonomic position is still debated, with some taxonomists treating Przewalski's horse as a species, E. przewalskii, others as a subspecies of wild horse (E. ferus przewalskii) or a variety of the domesticated horse (E. caballus).

The Przewalski's horse is stockily built, smaller, and shorter than its domesticated relatives. Typical height is about 12–14 hands (48–56 inches, 122–142 cm), and the average weight is around 300 kg (660 lb). They have a dun coat with pangaré features and often have dark primitive markings.