Wild Horses

Tom Jackson is a leading natural history writer based in the United Kingdom. As an author and contributor he has worked on more than 60 books. A zoology graduate from the University of Bristol, he has also worked as a zookeeper and in safari parks in Zimbabwe.

Contents include:

Introduction

Asia: From Steppe to Mountain For a long time, scientists considered Przewalski’s horse – native to northern parts of Asia – to be the only true wild horse to survive until modern times. That theory was overturned when DNA analysis revealed that Przewalski’s horse is probably descended from domesticated horses kept by the prehistoric north Asian Botai people. Turkmene (Turkey) Akhal-Teke (Central Asia) Yilki horse (Central Asia) Przewalski’s horse (Mongolia) Mongolian wild horse or takhi (China &Central Asia) Yakut horse (Siberia/Yakutsk) Misaki horse (Japan) Jeju horse (Korea)

Europe: From Moorlands to Wetlands The Konik horse is a semi-feral horse breed with dun colouring and dorsal stripes, like the horses seen in ancient cave paintings. Short and stocky with a small head and thick mane, the Konik looks a lot like the extinct Tarpan, the indigenous wild horse of the Eurasian Steppe. A different population of feral horses inhabits the Danube Delta region of Romania. Dartmoor pony (England) Exmoor pony (England) Przewalski’s horse (Hungary) Camargue horses (France) Giara (Sardinia) Konik house (Poland) Heck horse (Germany)

The Americas: Land of the Mustang The world’s most iconic wild horses have to be the mustangs of the American West. Their ancestors arrived more than five centuries ago with the Spanish conquistadors. Today they roam free in North Dakota, Montana and North Carolina. Spanish mustang (USA) Chincoteague ponies (USA)

Australia: Roaming Free Australia has the world’s largest population of wild horses. At least one million ‘Brumbies’, as the horses are known, roam free throughout the continent.

Africa: Desert Survivors To see the rarest and wildest of all feral horses, you’ll have to travel to Namibia. The Namib Desert Horse roams the barren Garub Plains of the Namib Desert. They look like handsome thoroughbreds and seem to thrive in the harsh desert conditions, where they live completely independently of humans.