Przewalski's Horse (Equus Przewalskii)
Blowing winds, open plains, endless sky - breathe it in and take in the amazing expanse that was, and hopefully will once again be my home. Przwalski Horses or (Takh as we are known in Mongolia) roamed these wild Mongolian grasslands, galloping free with the wind blowing in our bristly upright manes for centuries. We were named after the Russian explorer Nikoli Przewalski who first discovered us in the 1870s.
We are the last of the true wild horse horses (we have never been tamed and don't intend to be!), but we have become critically endangered. Even though lots of amazing people in the Netherlands did great things to save us, with our very small gene pool (that means we are all rather closely related, not a good thing when it comes to genes), we still live life on the edge of total extinction.
You may wonder why we have become endangered, well our wide open grasslands makes rather good pasture land for domestic herds, so our home has been taken over by farmers and their herds and other humans who want to live there. We have been pushed out of our natural habitat and there was nowhere to go. In fact there are now more of us in zoos around the world than in Mongolia, and even those of my kind who are lucky enough to live in the wide open grasslands have been re-introduced from zoos.
What can you do to help, well wear this wonderful organic T-shirt from Animal Tails to highlight our plight. Remind people that the true home of the Przewalski Horse is running wild in outer Mongolia - that's where I want to be running wild in the swirling Mongolian winds, and to be able to stare at the wide open sky at night and see the star constellation of Pegasus, the sign of the flying horse, which you can also find on my T-shirt.
Thank you
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