Story

We are a French and Mongolian nonprofit whose mission is the reintroduction of the endangered Przewalski's horse, the world's last truly wild horse, conservation of the Mongolian steppe and building sustainable livelihoods with herders. The Association pour le cheval de Przewalski: TAKH was founded in France in 1991. After our founder and director completed her thesis on the unique behaviors expressed by domestic horses when left in semi-free conditions, she and her colleagues set their sights on reintroducing the world’s last wild horse and thus removing its “extinct in the wild” classification. The task began by bringing 11 zoo-born horses to a reserve site in the Cevennes National Park so that they could “rediscover their wildness”. These horses had lived for several generations in zoos. They needed to learn to form families and get used to a territory much larger than a zoo enclosure, while the stallions had to “battle it out” to establish hierarchies. In 2004 and 2005, 22 offspring of these zoo-born horses were ready for the long trip to Mongolia. Since their reintroduction, the Association TAKH has led a long-term conservation project which integrates genetic and behavioral monitoring of the 53-member horse herd, pasture monitoring and research to ensure sufficient grass for both wild and domestic ungulates, and collaboration with herders at the reintroduction site to create “Przewalski horse-friendly” streams of income. The Przewalski’s horse is now classified as “endangered”. However, for them to be removed from IUCN’s red list, the wild population must contain at least 4500 horses divided into 3 separate populations. The current, total population of horses in the wild is estimated at less than 400. Through a simple Adopt-a-Horse program, individuals can help the Association achieve this goal.