New arrival at Highland Wildlife Park is 'neigh' bother!
Keepers at the Highland Wildlife Park near Kincraig have welcomed their first new-born Przewalski’s horse in five years.
Born last week to 12-year-old mare Ieda, the youngster is doing well and can already be seen out and about in the park’s main reserve.
Mr Douglas Richardson, Head of Living Collections for the Highland Wildlife Park, commented: "As soon as we introduced Hero our stallion to the mares last September, he immediately started courting one then the other, and as the gestation period is 11.5-12 months, this latest foal has arrived right on schedule."
A first time father, six-year-old Hero arrived at the park in August, last year, and spent 30 days in quarantine before joining Ieda and Sara, the resident mares, in early September.
Over the past year Hero has built a reputation for himself and is notorious for his feisty personality as well as being fiercely protective of his herd.
The arrival of this plucky little foal is also another contribution to Przewalski’s horse conservation – currently listed as endangered.
The species had previously been listed as extinct in the wild after the last specimen was seen in 1968 before a small population was reintroduced into Hustai National Park in Mongolia in the 1990s.
There are now around 1,500 Przewalski’s horses found in captive breeding programmes throughout the world, with a further 250 or so found in the wild.
Mr Richardson said: "Przewalski’s horses are one of the best examples of the positive conservation role that good zoos can play.
"Had it not been for the co-operatively managed captive population, when the species became extinct in the wild in the late 1960s there would have been no reintroduction option that has allowed us to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat."
As the only true wild horse species to survive, Przewalski’s horses are easily identifiable by their stark golden colouring and upright black manes.
They are named after the Russian explorer Nikolai Przewalski who formally discovered the species in the 1870s, their biggest threats include hybridisation with domestic horse breeds, habitat degradation and competition with livestock for food and water.