Between August 4–5, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the reservation in Pentezug, an international conference was held in the National Park of Hortobágy where the largest herd of Przewalski’s horses in the world is kept in semi-wild conditions.
Experts on the conservation of nature from Europe, America and Kazakistan participated in the conference and shared their experiences on preserving biodiversity and the breeding of endangered species of animals. The main subject of the cooperation of the workers of the Zoo in Prague, the University of Debrecen and the Pentezug Nature Conservation Field was the plight of the Przewalski’s horses in the world and the necessity of preserving them in the wild. The foreign experts believed that the Przewalski’s horses could become the symbols of a new beginning since it had been possible to preserve and increase their number only by programs of breeding in zoos and places of the conservation of nature. It was recalled at the conference that it was 25 years ago, back in 1997, that the first Przewalski’s horses arrived at the reservation of Pentezug with the assistance of the Zoo at Cologne.
The arrival of the horses had a double objective. On the one hand, it was important for the National Park of Hortobágy to establish a field, a so called Zone “A” where human intervention is minimal, and for that reason, in order to maintain the grassy wasteland it was necessary to settle here large-bodied herbivores. They chose species (Przewalski’s horses and the reconstructed ancient oxen) the ancestors of which used to be part of the ecosystem native to this place before the emergence of humans, and which are capable of staying alive on the wasteland on their own even today.
On the other hand, at the time of launching the project, there were very few places where the Przewalski’s horses were living in a natural or at least close to natural environment. At this time, sixty years after these animals had become extinct form the wild, they were resettled only to two places, and these were at the very early stage of their development. It was emphasized at the conference that during the past 25 years the Hungarian experts were able to gain an insight into the life of this endangered species and managed to establish contact with other experts on horses as well as institutions.
Albert Salemgareyev, a senior expert on resettlement of the Association for Preserving Biological Diversity in Kazakistan reported to the participants on the successful international project of resettling the population of (Turkmen) wild asses to Central Kazakistan which was implemented with the support of the Committee of Forestry and Wild Life by the Zoological Society of Frankfurt, the Royal Association of the Protection of Birds (the UK) and the Institute of the Conservation of Nature of Norway. The steppe of Turga where the center of resettlement was established by the scientists looks promising from the point of view of the wild asses since this area had not been utilized by farms and domestic horses. Salemgareyev noted that the scientists from Kazakistan hope that one day the population of wild asses will have bred to such an extent in Kazakistan that it is removed from the Red Book. However, in order to achieve this dream, exhausting and hard work of several decades is required.
