Przewalski’s Horse Foals Born at Minnesota Zoo

Two Przewalski’s horse foals were born this summer at the Minnesota Zoo. The foals, a filly and a colt, each weighed about 60 lb (27 kg) at birth, and both are doing well.

The Minnesota Zoo has played a key role in rebuilding the world population of Przewalski’s horses, which have been extinct in the wild since the 1960s. Members of the zoo’s staff are in charge of the Species Survival Plan, coordinating breeding and transfer recommendations for the two dozen institutions in North America that exhibit Asian wild horses.

The Minnesota Zoo has produced more than 40 Przewalski’s foals since it opened in 1978. Some of these foals have gone to other zoos, and one colt was sent to a semi-preserve in the Netherlands to produce offspring for release in Mongolia, the last place free-roaming Przewalski’s horses were found.

Though there are still very few of the wild horses, repopulation efforts have been instrumental in the breed’s recent upgrade from Critically Endangered to Endangered by the International Union of Conservation and Nature (IUCN). A small gene pool is one of the greatest challenges involved in bringing this equine back from the threat of extinction.