Extinct Animals : Przewalski's Horse

This stocky, pony-like animal, named for the Russian naturalist who discovered it in 1879, is the only surviving species of wild horse. Only 1.2 m high, it once inhabited the vast grasslands of central Asia, but beginning in the early 1900s, hunting pressure, competition for grazing land and water, and interbreeding with domestic Mongol ponies contributed to its increasing scarcity in its natural state.

Strict legal protection since 1926 in Mongolia appears to have failed to save the last wild population. The most recent reliable sighting of this horse occurred in 1968. It now survives only in zoos, and there is hope that captive breeding stock can be used in the future to re-establish the species in the wild.