Mongolia takhi

  

"The Przewalski’s — most commonly pronounced che-VAL-ski’s — is so rare that the horse, native to Mongolia, was once extinct in the wild.  

Its scant bloodlines are tracked by zoos, and individual animals are part of multinational conservation efforts. 

 These precious few horses don’t typically knock around auctions in the western United States.  

"Why had these endangered creatures been passed around and sold as cheap horseflesh?

“You think all the money and all the resources they spend to try and breed these animals so they are not extinct and no longer critically endangered, and now you’ve got people just throwing them away,” Ms. Huckabay said" 

"The Przewalski's, or Takhi, was once endemic to the grasslands of Central Asia — until the herds were entirely wiped out, including by Victorian-era hunters and people seeking an exotic foal, or baby horse, as a souvenir. 

 Many scientists believe it is the only true wild horse, never domesticated. " 

"the horses are categorically not supposed to end up where the TikTok Takhis did: in what is known as the equine slaughter pipeline, where they stood a chance of being sold and shipped to Canada and Mexico for butchering for things like dog food and glue." 

"It all started in February, when Ms. Huckabay paid $1,375 for the animal she saw advertised online.  

Utah agriculture officials had issued a brand inspection identifying it as a mule, which is a cross between a horse and a donkey.  

But with faint zebra striping on his legs and a rough-hewed muzzle, he immediately stood out as 

 … something else" 

"She bought Shrek from the Smith Horse Company in Peabody, Kan., a horse reseller that also puts on rodeos. Its owner, Jeff Smith, told me he didn’t know what kind of horse it was when he bought the funny-looking creature for $700" 

"Rooster’s real name is Kasey Bartlett. He told me he had bought the horse at another auction in Cedar City, in south-central Utah.  

A frequent customer there, he’d seen the animal pass through several times, 

 only to be returned every time because he could not be trained. When the price dropped to just $90, Mr. Bartlett took a risk and bid." 

"Ms. Bjorklund, 32, runs the Lazy B Equine Rescue and Sanctuary, in Clinton, Utah, a nonprofit where she and her husband, Gunnar, and their three children give refuge to unwanted horses" 

the woman had bought the mare from the Cedar City auction for $35.

"This animal, too, had been classified by Utah officials as a mule. (The Bjorklunds named her Fiona after they found out about Shrek.) Caroline Hargraves, a spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food’s Brand Inspection Board, said the inspectors rely on information the original owner provides."

“The brand inspection program does not receive training on endangered species and is  

not tasked with policing activity regarding endangered species,” Ms. Hargraves said in an email.

Ms. Bjorklund noticed something about the animal right away: It had a crooked ear. A familiar one." 

“They’re wilder than any mustang,” he said. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/23/nyregion/rare-horses-przewalski.html# 

* 

"Several genetic characteristics of Przewalski's horse differ from what is seen in modern domestic horses, indicating neither is an ancestor of the other.  

For example, the Przewalski's horse has 33 chromosome pairs, compared to 32 for the domestic horse.  

Their ancestral lineages split from a common ancestor between 160,000 and 38,000 years ago, long before the domestication of the horse.  

Przewalski's horse was long considered the only remaining truly wild horse,  

in contrast with the American mustang and the Australian brumby, which are instead feral horses descended from domesticated animals. " 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Przewalski%27s_horse 

also called the takhi  

(Mongolian:  

Mongolian wild horse 

 or Dzungarian horse,  

is a rare and endangered horse originally native to the steppes of Central Asia. 

 It is named after the Russian geographer and explorer Nikolay Przhevalsky"