Przewalski's Horse

Kingdom- Animalia

Phylum- Chordata

Class- Mammalia

Family- Perissodactyla

Order- Equidae

Genus- Equus

Species- Equus Ferus

Subspecies- None

Species Exsistence- They diverged from a common ancestor 500,000 yrs. ago

Closest Relative- Botai Horses

3 Ancestors- Hipparion, Neohipparion, Nannippus

Physical Description: They have a stocky build with a large head, thick neck, and short legs. They are dun-colored with a dark zebra-like mane and no forelock. They have a dark stripe on their back from the withers to the base of the tail.

Key Characteristic: The black stripe down their back

Size: 4.3-5 feet tall at withers, 7.25-8.5 feet long

Weight: 550-800 pounds

Life Span: 20-25 yrs.

Male vs. Female: No difference in Phenotype

Przewalski's horses can be found in Mongolia at the Hustai National Park (Khustain Nuruu N.P)

Amount of Rainfall: 10.6 inches per year

Plants: There are 459 species vascular plants, 85 species of lichens, 90 species of moss, and 33 species of mushroom in the national park they live in.  Could not find the specific types.

Animals: The National Park is home to many species. Some of the species include the Takhi, Red Deer, Steppe Gazelle, Eurasian Badger, Grey Wold, and the Eurasian Lynx.

Temperature: The average temperate year round in the National Park is 32.36 degrees farenheit. The temperature can be as cold as -58 degress farenheit and as hot as 107 degrees farenheit. 

Terrain: The terrain of the park has a wide varity of arid steppe, forest, and gentle slopes.

Continents found: Mongolia

Invasive at all: No

What it eats: grass, plants, and fruit

How often it eats: They will eat up to 18 hrs. per day

How it gets food: They spend lots of time grazing on grass. Like zebras and donkeys, they are hind-gut fermenters, meaning that they need to consume large amounts of water and low quality food. They are able to use sharp hooves to dig holes in the ground to access water.

Any Special foods: No

They are pack animals/ they live in 2 distinct social groups: Harems and Bachelor groups

Roles within community: 

-They help control vegitation by eating it but also fertilize the soil allowing for more vegitation to grow.

-The foals (birth-year old) provide food for predators such as the wolf.

Males or females lead groups: Males

Individuals that make up the group: 

• Harems rarely have more than 10 mares, their offspring up to 2 or 3 years of age, and are lead by one dominant stallion.

• When stallions are old enough to compete with the lead stallion, they are driven out of the harem and join small bachelor groups until they mature enough to compete for a harem group of their own. When mares are old enough to reproduce, they may leave the harem group to join another.

How they interact: Harem members all graze and rest at the same time. They spend a lot of time grooming one another, standing side by side, and nibble at one another's back and sides. This helps reinforce social bonds within the group and also provides a good scratch!

How often they mate: Once a year

How many mates: 1 per year

Time of year for mating: Spring/Summer

Mating rituals:

• Mare backs into stallion or stands in front of him to indicate receptivity
  -Ears turned back but not flattened, lips relaxed. Also urinates to reveal vuvla.

• Interested Stallion will sniff her urine to determine sexual maturity

• Mounting: Stallion may rest chin on mare's back to test willingness to stand... then, rears and places his forelimbs in front of mare's pelvis

# of offspring produced at a time: 1 foal per year

Unique characteristics: They have 66 chromosomes compared to the 64 that domestic horses have.

Stages of developement: 

• Foal (Birth-Year)

• Yearling (Year- 2 Years)

• Colt/Filly (2 years- 4 Years)

Age before sexual maturity: About 4-5 years for males and females

Activities and environemt of stages: Foals stay with their moms until they are 2 years of age. There is not much movement.

Difference between males and females: Males are usally taller and have sturdier bodies. They are also heavier compared to females of the same age.

Predation: Wolves are the Przewalski's horse foal's greatest enemy. To protect the little ones the mares (adult females) form a defensive circle around the youngsters, and the stallion trots around the circle and charges. At night, one or more horses keep watch whilen the others rest.

Sexual Competition: They usally don't fight for the females until death so this is not really a cause for death.

Disease: Equine piroplasmosis is a blood-borne disease of equids caused by one of two protozoan parasites, Theileria equi, or Babesia caballi. This killed 4 stallions and a foal in the 2000's. However it is not the main cause of their decline.

Other Causes: Their greatest threats today include a loss of genetic biodiversity. However their near extinction in the wild was brought on by hunting, and loss of habitat.

Inter-species: There is competion between the stallions for who gets to be the dominant stallion between the group. 

Intra-species: Competion for water with other species that live in the same area

What do they compete over: Food, Water, Sexual Comp.

Affect of invasive species: There is not much of an affect.

What is the rating: Critically Endangered 

Population: 1,900 living in captivity or in the wild

Populaton Trend: Increasing

What impacts have occured:

• For centuries, this horse was hunted by the Mongolians as a source of food. Futhermore, after world war II there was lots of mining expassion and overhunting. Together these activities, along with some harsh winters, pushed the species toward extinction with only a few fragmented wild populations remaining in the 1940's and 50s.

• Reintroduction efforts have succesfully grown and sustained wild populations at several sites in Mongolia, promoting the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to reclassify the subspecies as Critically Endangered in 2008.

Potential future impacts: Hopefully the humans will help to grow their populations until it can be better sustained and not critically endangered.

How long humans interacted with species: Probably as long as 38,000 years ago. The exact number is not clear. 

Efforts being made to minimize impacts: The Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute is heavily involved in saving the Przewalski's horses trough reproductive research, genetic management of the North American herd, golbal genetic management, reintoduction, and capacity building.