Stop. Look closely. That isn’t a horse.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not quite a mule either. On April 21, the Wildlife Conservation Society\u2019s Bronx Zoo added a new resident to New York City\u2019s skyline. Or at least its animal collection. It is a Przewalski horse foal. Equus ferus przewalskyi<\/em>. Rare. Precious. Alive.<\/p>\n This little guy is part of species that once stared directly into the abyss and somehow climbed out. We actually called them Extinct in the Wild for a while.<\/p>\n They look weird compared to your average steed. Their manes stick straight up. No forelock, meaning no bangs. Just stiff, upright hair. They are short. Light brown. Exceptionally<\/em> chonky. And they have necks thick enough to carry the weight of history.<\/p>\n They are the last truly wild horse species on Earth.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The IUCN backs that up. Once they roamed all across Asia and Europe. Now? Not so much. Their numbers crashed hard. Too hard.<\/p>\n The Bronx Zoo isn\u2019t just keeping them in a box though. They\u2019re helping save the whole group. Through careful breeding they\u2019ve kept genetics diverse. Then they shipped zoo-bred horses back to the grasslands of China in 1985 and Mongolia starting in 1992.<\/p>\n The result? They are living again. In Mongolia, China, and Kazakhstan. Plus a few lucky spots like the Bronx.<\/p>\n But here is the shocker. The entire current population\u2014under 2,000 horses\u2014is descended from just twelve. Only twelve. Think about that. One small genetic lottery ticket spun into nearly two thousand chances for survival.<\/p>\n Wildlife Conservation Society guards protected areas in Mongolia now. Back in New York, this foal joins a herd. You can see him from the Wild Asia Monotrail. He\u2019s cute. He will grow.<\/p>\n We did the hard part. Now we wait and watch.<\/p>\n Maybe they\u2019ll run free again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stop. Look closely. That isn’t a horse. It\u2019s not quite a mule either. On April 21, the Wildlife Conservation Society\u2019s Bronx Zoo added a new resident to New York City\u2019s skyline. Or at least its animal collection. It is a Przewalski horse foal. Equus ferus przewalskyi. Rare. Precious. Alive. This little guy is part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n