普氏野馬:關于地球上最后的“野馬”你不知道的5件事

普氏野馬:關于地球上最后的“野馬”你不知道的5件事

We think of horses as domesticated animals, and no wonder since we've been breeding them for millennia for everything from hunting and jumping to herding and ranch work to pulling plows and heavy carts. Over the centuries, some horses have gone feral, like the famous American mustang, the Camargue horses of France, and the brumbies of Australia. We call them wild, but technically they're not. However, unlike the equids we're used to seeing on farms or roaming over hillsides, the Przewalksi's horse was believed to be a truly wild horse breed, having never been domesticated by humans.

我們認為馬是馴養(yǎng)的動物，這也難怪，因為我們幾千年來一直飼養(yǎng)它們，從狩獵、跳躍到放牧、牧場勞作，再到拉犁和拉大車。幾個世紀以來，一些馬變得野性化了，比如著名的美國野馬、法國的卡馬格馬和澳大利亞的野馬。我們稱它們?yōu)橐吧鷦游?，但嚴格來說它們不是。然而，與我們在農場或山坡上看到的馬科動物不同的是，普氏野馬被認為是一種真正的野馬品種，從未被人類馴化過。

The Przewalski horse is an endangered subspecies of the wild horse and is named after the Russian explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky. (Photo: Patrick Pleul//AFP/Getty Images)

If not truly wild, the Przewalski's horse, native to the steppes of central Asia, is endangered. Here are 5 cool facts about these special horses and what's being done to protect them.

普氏野馬原產于中亞大草原，如果不是真正的野生馬，它也有滅絕的危險。以下是關于這些特殊的馬的5個有趣的事實，以及如何保護它們。

1. The Przewalski's horse is a subspecies of Equus ferus and is considered the closest relative of the domestic horse. It is cousin to zebras and the wild ass, which all fall under the Equidae family. The split between Przewalski's horse species and the ancestors of domestic horses happened somewhere between 120,000 and 240,000 years ago.

普氏野馬是馬的亞種，被認為是家馬的近親。它是斑馬和野驢的表親，它們都屬于馬科。普氏馬和馴養(yǎng)馬的祖先之間的分裂發(fā)生在12萬到24萬年前。

2. Przewalski’s horses are named after Col. Nikolai Przewalski, who was the first Western scientist to describe the species in writing in 1878. However, the first sighting by a European occurred centuries earlier, when Johann Schiltberger recorded his sighting in the early 1400s during a trip to Mongolia while a prisoner of the Turks.

普氏野馬是以尼古拉·普洗瓦爾斯基上校(Col. Nikolai Przewalski)的名字命名的，他是第一位在1878年寫下這個物種的西方科學家。然而，歐洲人的第一次目擊發(fā)生在幾個世紀前，當約翰·斯基爾特伯格在15世紀初被土耳其俘虜去蒙古旅行時，他記錄了自己的第一次目擊。

3. The Przewalski's horse nearly disappeared into extinction. Very few in captivity made it through World War II and the last wild individual was spotted in 1969. The species was listed as extinct from the wild in the 1960s until the 1990s, when one surviving individual was found in the wild and other bands of captive-bred horses were reintroduced with continuing success. Currently, there are about 400 horses living in the wild and around 2,000 individuals in captive breeding programs and zoos, and the species' status is now listed as endangered.

普氏野馬幾乎滅絕了。在第二次世界大戰(zhàn)期間，被圈養(yǎng)的動物很少能存活下來，最后一只野生個體是在1969年被發(fā)現(xiàn)的。從20世紀60年代到90年代，這個物種被列為從野外滅絕的物種，當時在野外發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個幸存的個體，其他圈養(yǎng)繁殖的馬被重新引入，并取得了持續(xù)的成功。目前，約有400匹馬生活在野外，約有2000匹馬在圈養(yǎng)繁殖項目和動物園里，這個物種的狀態(tài)現(xiàn)在被列為瀕危物種。

A 12-year-old mare named Ieda with her new foal are in the pasture at the Highland Wildlife Park in 2013 in Kingussie, Scotland. The foal was the first newborn Przewalski's horse at the park in five years. (Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

4. All the Przewalski's horses alive today are descended from 12 horses — 11 captured and brought out of Mongolia around 1900, and a female captured in 1947. Captive breeding has increased the species' numbers from a low of about 30 individuals to today's count approaching 2,000 individuals. The first pedigree book was created by zoologist Dr. Erna Mohr, and a detailed studbook has been kept and updated ever since to minimize inbreeding and thus maximize genetic diversity.

所有現(xiàn)存的普氏野馬都是12匹馬的后代，其中11匹是1900年左右從蒙古捕獲并運出的，另外1匹是1947年捕獲的母馬。圈養(yǎng)繁殖使該物種的數(shù)量從30只左右增加到今天的近2000只。第一本家譜是由動物學家埃爾納·莫爾博士(Dr. Erna Mohr)創(chuàng)建的，從那以后，一份詳細的血統(tǒng)簿一直被保存和更新，以最大限度地減少近親繁殖，從而最大限度地增加遺傳多樣性。

5. Despite the careful captive breeding programs, a major threat to the species today is a loss of genetic diversity and thus disease. Their original decline was brought about by hunting, loss of water resources to domestic animals, and loss of habitat. Hybridization with domestic horses was (and is) a threat.

盡管有精心的圈養(yǎng)繁殖計劃，但今天對物種的一個主要威脅還是遺傳多樣性的喪失和疾病。它們最初的衰落是由于狩獵、家畜失去了水資源和棲息地。與馴養(yǎng)的馬雜交過去是(現(xiàn)在也是)一種威脅。

A herd of Przewalksi's horses graze in summer. (Photo: Vlasto Opatovsky/Shutterstock)