They are the only horses on Earth that have never been domesticated. And after surviving extinction in the wild, Przewalski's horses are coming home to Kazakhstan — and preparing to have babies there for the first time in modern history.
Known locally as kerkulan, Przewalski's horses (Equus ferus przewalskii) were declared extinct in the wild in 1969. Every individual alive today descends from a tiny number of animals saved in European zoos. Over decades of careful breeding, conservationists built up numbers sufficient to attempt reintroduction — first in Mongolia and China, and now, in one of the most ambitious rewilding programmes in Central Asia, in the Kazakh steppe.
The first group of seven horses arrived from Prague Zoo in June 2024. A second group followed in 2025. Now, as specialists at the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK) complete their winter assessments, the news is better than anyone hoped.
'Horses that arrived last June have adapted well to the harsh continental climate, better than the team expected,' said Vera Voronova, ACBK's executive director.
Surviving a Kazakh winter is no small thing. Temperatures plunge far below freezing, winds scour the steppe, and food is scarce. Yet the horses developed strong winter coats and maintained healthy activity levels throughout. Their behaviour adjusted naturally — moving less, spending more time feeding — exactly as wild horses evolved to do.
The team responded to the cold by increasing supplementary hay rations without disrupting the animals' natural diet. Small amounts of oats and alfalfa were added, but carefully, to preserve the horses' instinct to forage and their robust immune systems.
Thirteen horses are currently in the reintegration centre, divided into several social groups. Daily monitoring tracks nutritional status, social dynamics, and health — including preventive parasite control to keep immune systems strong as the animals adapt to a new microbiome.
The project has not been without heartbreak. The loss of one stallion dealt an early blow. But the team pressed on, and the herd's overall resilience has vindicated their approach.
Now comes the milestone everyone has been waiting for: the first wild-born Przewalski's foals on the Kazakh steppe. Specialists expect pregnancies and births this summer, when a third group of horses is also due to arrive.
A new generation of the world's last truly wild horses, born free on the ancient grasslands their species roamed for thousands of years.
Some stories take centuries to write their next chapter. This one is writing it right now. 🐴