My most unwelcome nemesis, insomnia, visited this week. In an uncharacteristic move, I reached for my phone and thought I’d lull myself to sleep watching Tik Toks of horses and trendy dance moves. But no. Turns out there’s a great brouhaha in the horsy world of Tik Tok.
It seems someone named Kinsey rescued a funny looking stud horse from a Kansas kill pen. Shortly after, genetic testing confirmed Kinsey’s suspicions. “Shrek” is a 100% Przewalski’s (pronounced shuh-VAL-skeez) horse.
Insomnia won. Sleep had no chance.
I learned about Przewalski’s horses as a child from my All About Horses (Marguerite Henry) book, which was weathered and worn from my constant perusing. The only wild horse left in the world, these stout, spiky-maned relatives of domestic horses once roamed the Mongolian steppe. I read with sadness how their numbers dwindled so low they were declared “extinct in the wild,” with the last wild sighting in 1969.
Now you may say I’m delusional, as bands of mustangs freely roam the west, and even some spots in Florida, the Carolinas, and Assateague Island. These horses, even those embodying the “Spirit of the West,” are not technically wild. They are feral, escapees from domestic horses of yore.
If they are free-roaming, aren’t they wild? Not exactly. Wild animals are genetically different from their domestic counterparts. For analogy enthusiasts, domestic is to tame as feral is to wild. Sure you can tame a wolf, but only genetic mutations can domesticate it. And a dog can go feral, but it can’t go wild.
Przewalski’s horses (Equus przewalskii) and our domestic horses (Equus caballas) differ not only in looks and temperament, but number of chromosome pairs as well.
Called takhis by the Mongolians, meaning spirit or holy, these horses once roamed the area between China and Mongolia. Due to a decline in genetic diversity, hunting, habitat destruction, and dwindling water sources, their numbers plummeted to almost none. Attempts to capture a sample for preservation purposes between 1910 and 1960 yielded 12 foals. All our remaining Przewalski’s horses are descendants of this dozen.
Captive breeding programs and years of devoted recovery practices have raised the number of free-roaming takhis to nearly 1500. Just this month, seven horses, including mares and stallions from Berlin and Prague, were released into their native habitat.
Those responsible know the whereabouts of every single Przewalski’s horse, free-roaming and captive.
Back to Tik Tok. According to Shrek’s new owner, four Przewalski’s horses, three mares and a stallion, slipped under the radar and cannot be accounted for. It seems Shrek may be the missing stallion.
How did this happen? I cannot imagine, but when I saw the video of that little stud running around in his corral, my brain buzzed and my heart skipped a beat. Could it be?
But wait, there’s more. A woman who runs a rescue in Utah thinks she may have a Przewalski’s mare. DNA testing is underway according to the owners of Lazy B Equine Rescue. They named her Fiona, of course, because we all believe in fairy tales.
And now, horse fans like me are staring at our phones awaiting updates on Shrek and Fiona. Will they be sent to zoos or to dedicated Przewalski’s horse organizations? Is Fiona even a takhi? Is someone pulling our collective leg?
This is not the first time I’ve fallen down the Przewalski’s horse rabbit hole. The last time was when I learned about Kurt, the cloned Przewalski’s horse in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Now a spry four-year-old stud, Kurt was born from the vision of Dr. Kurt Benirschke who founded the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Frozen Zoo, where he froze the genetic material of rare and endangered species before the technologies to clone or otherwise reproduce these organisms even existed.
One of the animals he got his hands on was a takhi stallion known as Kuporovic, whose genetic material from a skin cell sample was cryopreserved in 1980. Kuporovic’s son was born 22 years after his death.
Goodness gracious. The magic of this mighty little horse breed just goes on and on.
And then it goes on some more.
In February of 2023, another clone of Kuporovic was born. Ollie, named after Dr. Oliver Ryder, Director of Conservation Genetics at San Diego Zoo Alliance, is doing fine.
If you too would like to fall down a very sweet rabbit hole, there are some darling videos on YouTube of Kurt and Ollie. And of course, the Tik Tok drama continues to play out should you be so inclined as to risk losing sleep.
This morning I raise my coffee cup to the success of Przewalski’s horse breeding and reintroduction efforts, to Kurt and Ollie, to Shrek and Fiona, and to visionaries like Dr. Kurt Benirschke.
From WAPO, updates
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/08/09/przewalskis-horses-rescued-dna-shrek-fiona/
This is awesome, Mary! I’ve been involved with endangered livestock for quite a while and am aware of limited genetics, cloning, and such. This story is incredible! I love to hear your voice, and to learn how to pronounce the name of this horse.