07/06/2021
And if humans face extinction, who’s going to help us? This is really a beautiful story.
‘Back From the Brink of Extinction’
This tiny foal is a wild Przewalski’s horse. In 2017, I traveled to Mongolia to document the re-introduction of wild Przewalski’s horses back to their homeland on the vast steppes. With the introduction of fi****ms for hunting, the Przewalski’s horse eventually became extinct in the wild. The last horse was spotted in 1969. Thankfully, there were still a small number of these rare horses in sanctuaries and a breeding program was established to ‘right the wrong’ from mankind. On June 5th 1992, fifteen Przewalski’s horses were successfully released in Mongolia’s Hustai National Park. Today there are approximately 350 Przewalski’s horses once again living wild and free on the Mongolian steppes.
I wanted to post this story as a reminder that extinction is forever. It is final. There is no coming back. Right now, American mustangs are being removed from the landscape by the thousands. Since they are federally protected, guns are not being used. The weapon of choice is the helicopter. American mustangs are being eradicated from public lands to appease the livestock industry. If the story of the Przewalski’s horse has taught us anything, it is this: bringing a species back from the brink of extinction is extremely difficult. Are we headed in this direction with horses in the wild in the USA? It appears that way. The people of Mongolia are doing everything they can to re-establish their native wild horses, to roam free on their homeland for generations to come. The loss of the horses was too devastating to bear.
‘Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone….’ ~ Joni Mitchell
We hope that history doesn’t repeat itself - this time in the American southwest. To find out how you can help save wild horses, please follow Wild Horse Education and American Wild Horse Campaign, and to help fund a documentary exposing the wild horse roundups, please follow The Wild Beauty Foundation
