A British zoo is celebrating the exciting new arrival of a rare Przewalski’s horse foal.
The breed was extinct in the wild from 1969 to 2008, so foals are a cause for celebration.
The foal was born to dam Tsetseg, at Marwell Zoo in Hampshire, on 15 April and is reported to be doing well.
“Tsetseg is a very good mum and her foal has been seen feeding well,” said Katie Foulkes, hoofstock assistant animal keeper at Marwell.
“She is separating herself and the foal from the group slightly, which is perfectly normal, and shows that she is being very protective.”
Przewalski’s horses are listed as endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species. The population is increasing as a result of zoo breeding programmes.
The foal, who is yet to be named, will become part of the European Ex-Situ breeding programme, a population management programme involving multiple zoos.
The new foal can be seen alongside last year’s arrival, Basil, in the zoo’s valley field, which visitors can see from the balcony of its Café Graze.
All Przewalski’s horses alive today are descended from 12 captive individuals, after the population in the wild was declared extinct. In the past, they would have been found from the Russian Steppes to Kazakhstan, Mongolia and northern China.
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