Mongolia - Przewalski's Horse

 

Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky (Никола́й Миха́йлович Пржева́льский)  was a Russian geographer/explorer of Polish descent [1] and lived from 1839 until 1888.  He died of typhus near Karakol at the Issykul Lake (Kyrgyzstan); the small settlement had been renamed by the Tsar to Przhevalsk and is now part of Karakol. There is a museum now with lots of artefacts, script, passport and so on, which belonged to Przhevalsky. I've visited the museum in 2014 and 2016 and since the first time I wanted to see Przewalski's horse [2]. Nikolay Przhevalsky also described  Przewalski's gazelle, and the Wild Bactrian camel, together with Przewalski's horse they all are endangered now. So I've been fortunate to see this horse in Mongolia this year.

Przewalski's horse has 33 chromosome pairs, whereas the domestic horse (and „wild horses“ like mustangs) have 32. The ancestral lineage split from a common ancestor is thought to have occurred between 38,000 and 160,000 years ago [3]. Przewalski's horse has an ambling gait like the Icelandic horse [4] has the tölt, which usually horses don't have, but could be trained to use (equestrian competitions).

In Mongolia Przewalski's horse is called takhi (тахи). Mongolia is one of the countries, where  Przewalski's horse has been reintroduced [5]. As the takhi is sturdier than the domestic horse, it might be better adapted to the harsh climate, as the Icelandic horse; but keep in mind that there are much more domestic horses in Mongolia [6]. I could see the horses in Khustain Nuruu National Park (Хустайн байгалийн цогцолборт газар), one of the areas to which they were reintroduced in 1998.

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Przhevalsky
[2] I already have mentioned the museum: https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2020/07/camps-tents-and-camels-at-hundar-in.html
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Przewalski%27s_horse
[4] I've just returned from Iceland, where I have seen this gait (tölt). However, the Icelandic horse belongs to the domestic horse.
[5] https://takhi.mn/takhi-reintroduction/
[6] The Statistical Yearbook of Mongolia – 2016 https://1212.mn/BookLibraryDownload.ashx?url=Yearbook_2016.pdf&ln=Mn This is about three times as much as there are horses in Germany.

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