“Forty years after their reintroduction, there are now over 900 Przewalski’s horses in China, some of which are living in ‘self-sustaining wild herds.’ Przewalski’s horse was extinct in the wild by the late 1960s but is now recovering thanks to captive breeding and reintroduction programs,” reports The Doomslayer.
China Daily explains:
Forty years after China launched the ‘Wild Horse Return Program.’ the Przewalski’s horse — the world’s only surviving wild horse species — has completed a historic transition from being on the brink of extinction to there being self-sustaining wild herds in Northwest China.
The population of Przewalski’s horses in China has surpassed 900 individuals, accounting for approximately one-third of the global total, according to figures released during an event to mark the 40th anniversary of the species’ reintroduction….
The program reached a technical peak last year with China’s largest long-distance relocation operation. Led by professor Hu Defu of Beijing Forestry University, the mission transported 28 horses over 1,030 kilometers from the center in Wuwei to the reserve in Dunhuang using a pioneering “loose transport” method….So far, the center has bred, relocated and released over 300 horses. By September last year, the reserve’s population had surpassed 200, forming 28 herds.
Last year, the group Rewilding Spain introduced “Przewalski’s horses and aurochs-lookalike Taurus cattle to the Spanish countryside in an attempt to fill the ecological niches left empty by the long-extinct European megafauna.”
In 2024, wild horses returned to Kazakhstan after being absent for 200 years. Kazakhstan is the world’s ninth largest nation by land area.
Fish species rebounded off the coast of California due to their young finding a sanctuary in abandoned oil rigs.
