(CN) Rare wild horses set to return to original habitat

[Guest guest]

China Daily

http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/

(GUO NEI)

08/06/2001

 

Twenty-eight wild horses will be sent back to their natural habitat on Maika

Lali Nature Reserve in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, according to an

official working with the reserve.

" The 28 horses, which are rare species of wildlife in China, were well

prepared for the arrival of wild life, " said Cao, an official of Wild Horse

Reproduction Centre.

 

According to the official, the wild horses have undergone a period of

training aimed at adapting them to their natural environment. Instead of

being fed regularly and living in cramped enclosures, the 28 wild horses are

now living in a much bigger field with water sources, wild grass and natural

hiding places.

 

The condition of the horses is monitored around the clock by the staff at

the centre, said Cao.

 

According to Cao, the long-term confinement of the horses has damaged their

capacity for survival in their natural environment by reducing their speed

and sense of direction.

 

Besides, the human control of mating and the reproduction of wild horses

interferes with the natural law of competition for carrying on of the genes,

which is essential to enhance the superior genes of such a species.

 

The death of the first horse born in the centre was partly attributed to the

poor rearing method.

 

The wild horses now living in Northwest China's Xinjiang are the only

species of wild horse in the world. They are the only living organism that

contain genes that are about 6 million years old.

 

Less than 1,000 of the wild horses in the hundreds of zoos and horse-raising

grounds around the world are the descendants of the wild horses found in

Junggar Basin and the southwest border of Mongolia at the end of last

century. Subject to relentless poaching since then, the wild horses became

extinct from their original habitat at the beginning of this century. The

few living were sold to Europe and America.

 

A programme of bringing the wild horses to their home was launched in 1985.

Within the next few years, 18 wild horses from Germany and Britain were

adopted by the Xinjiang Wild Horse Reproduction Centre.

 

The years that followed saw a remarkable increase in the survival of the

wild horses and their reproductive rate at the centre.

 

Up to now, the centre has 103 wild horses of all ages.