ASTANA — The Prague Zoo is set to facilitate the transportation of the first batch of Przewalski’s horses to Kazakhstan in 2024, according to Kazinform. These horses will be relocated from Europe to the Altyn Dala State Natural Reserve in Kazakhstan, where they will undergo a year-long acclimatization process.
Photo credit: Reverse The Red/Joly Laurent Tatin. Click to see the map in full size. The map is designed by The Astana Times.
An international seminar to plan the project took place in Prague from Aug. 21-24. Organized by the Prague Zoo, the event was part of a memorandum on long-term cooperation for the restoration of the wild horse population in Kazakhstan. This memorandum was signed by the governments of Kazakhstan and the Czech Republic in April.
Representatives from the Berlin, Nuremberg, and Budapest zoos, as well as the Frankfurt Zoological Society, Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan, Hungary’s Hortobag National Park, and Mongolia’s Big Gobi Reserve, attended the seminar.
The Przewalski’s horse, a wild horse species named after a Russian explorer, once roamed the territories of North Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China. The species was first documented in the 1880s, and it is believed that their ancestors may have lived in the region for over 5,000 years.
