In the past week, I visited Prague Zoo to discuss future projects on the Przewalski’s horse. I was fortunate not only to see the horses at the zoo’s Gobi exhibit, where six individuals are currently kept, but also to visit their Przewalski’s horse’s enclosure at Dívčí hrady (Girl’s Castle), a hill above Prague’s Smíchov district that now holds nine horses. I also traveled to the Przewalski’s horse’s breeding and acclimatization station in Dolní Dobřejov, located 80 km south of Prague in a region known as the “Czech Siberia.” This center currently houses more than thirty horses and serves as the main hub for receiving animals from across Europe before transport to Mongolia or Kazakhstan. Here, they acclimatize to the harsh winter conditions before being reintroduced to Mongolia or Kazakhstan.
Przewalski’s horses (four to the left) and a kiang (Tibetan wild ass) (right) in breeding and acclimatization station in Dolní Dobřejov
The term “wild horse” is often used informally to describe free-roaming feral horses such as the mustangs of the United States and the brumbies of Australia. However, these animals are untamed descendants of the domestic horse and should not be confused with the truly wild subspecies. Only seven true wild horse species remain in the world. These include the Przewalski’s horse of Mongolia and Kazakhstan; the plains zebra, Grevy’s zebra, mountain zebra, and African wild ass of Africa; and the Asian wild ass and kiang of Mongolia and Turkmenistan.
Przewalski’s horses in Dívčí hrady
The Przewalski’s horse is the last surviving truly wild horse species. Although the world only learned of its existence in 1881, it was driven to extinction in the wild less than a century later, during the 1960s. Known locally by Mongolian as the takhi, it is the rare and iconic wild horse of the Central Asian steppe. Its survival today is the result of captive-breeding initiatives in which Prague Zoo has played a major and sustained role.
The species’ modern story is astonishing. By the early 1900s, 54 Przewalski’s horses had been taken into captivity worldwide, but only twelve left descendants. A lone mare captured in 1946 brought the founder population to thirteen. Every Przewalski’s horse alive today traces its lineage back to those few survivors.
Ali and Minka, the first breeding pair of Przewalski’s horses living in Prague Zoo (1930s). Photo: Prague Zoo archive (https://www.zoopraha.cz/en/return-of-the-wild-horses/przewalski-s-horse/15585-saving-the-przewalski-s-horses)
Prague Zoo entered the story early. Three horses reached Czechoslovakia in 1921. When the zoo opened, two of them were moved to its grounds, and in 1933 they produced the first foal born there. That birth was the beginning of a legacy: over the next ninety years, more than 250 foals followed, with breeding continuing even during the turmoil of the Second World War. In 1959, Prague Zoo brought international experts together for the first-ever symposium dedicated to the species. From that gathering came the International Studbook, the global record of every mare, stallion, and foal.
Przewalski’s horses in Dívčí hrady
As the global captive population grew, releasing the horses back to their ancestral lands became possible. Prague Zoo contributed animals to transports in 1998 and 2000 to Takhiin Tal and Khustain Nuruu, projects then led mostly by organizations in Western Europe.
Przewalski’s horses in Hustai National Park, Mongolia
But progress stalled. The species seemed safe enough, and transports nearly stopped. Then came the brutal winter of 2010, which devastated the herd in Mongolia’s Great Gobi B. Recognizing that action was urgently needed, Prague Zoo stepped in and began organizing transports itself, the first zoo in the world to do so. That moment marked the birth of the Return of the Wild Horses project. With the support of the Czech Air Force, Prague Zoo has accomplished something no other zoo has done: it has organized and carried out its own intercontinental air transports of a large wild animal.
The horse runs into the acclimatization enclosure in Kazakhstan on 3 June 2025. Photo: Oliver Le Que, Prague Zoo (https://www.zoopraha.cz/en/return-of-the-wild-horses/przewalski-s-horse/15590-return-of-the-wild-horses-kazakhstan)
After restoring the horse to Mongolia’s Great Gobi, the program pushed even farther in 2024, delivering horses to Kazakhstan’s Golden Steppe for the first time in centuries. In June 2025, a second transport to Kazakhstan was carried out. For the first time in centuries, a herd of Przewalski’s horses thunders across the Golden Steppe of Kazakhstan, returning to a land where their ancestors vanished hundreds of years ago.
Przewalski’s horses in breeding and acclimatization station in Dolní Dobřejov
Today, the Przewalski’s horse is standing on firmer ground. Around 2,000 individuals live in human care, and several hundred roam protected areas across Asia. Thanks to decades of hard work, the species has climbed from “Extinct in the Wild” to “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List — a rare conservation success story.