ISIS impact
Przewalski’s horse preservation
The only true wild horse, Przewalski’s horse (Equus przewalski) – also know as the Asiatic wild horse, Mongolian wild horse, Mongolian tarpan and taki – is extinct in the wild. It is believed that the last of the breed disappeared somewhere around the 1950’s due to cross-breeding with half-wild domesticated horses, which caused them to lose their distinct features.
The Western Plains Zoo, the Przewalski Foundation in the Netherlands, breeding preserves in Askania Nova, Ukraine and others have been involved in Przewalski’s Horse preservation. These captive populations are the source of animals successfully reintroduced into their original habitat.
There are about 200 remaining today, almost all held in zoos.
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California condor
The IUCN Red List 2004 lists the California condor “critically endangered.” In the 1930s, an estimated 150 California condors lived in the wild. By 1987, there were just 27 birds. When only eight California condors (Gymnogyps californianus) remained, the survivors were brought into zoos. |
ISIS data supported the Zoological Society of San Diego, the United States Fish & Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish & Game, the National Audubon Society and the Los Angeles Zoo to come together to begin the first captive breeding program for this species.
In 1992, the first captive-bred condors were reintroduced into the wild in California. In the last 20 years, the total population has grown to 243 birds.