By the 1960s, Przewalski's horses had completely disappeared from the wild. The last wild one was seen in Mongolia in 1969. They survived only in zoos around the world. Scientists and conservationists knew they had to act — they set up careful breeding programmes, making sure horses from different zoos had foals together to keep the population healthy and varied.
Starting in 1992, Mongolian and international scientists began releasing Przewalski's horses back onto the Mongolian steppe. The horses had to learn to be wild again — how to find food through the snow, how to spot predators, how to live in herds. Slowly but surely they did. Today more than 2,000 Przewalski's horses are alive, with growing herds living wild in Mongolia.
In Mongolia, Przewalski's horse is called takhi, meaning 'spirit' or 'worthy of worship'. Local people feel a strong connection to it as a symbol of Mongolia's wild, free landscape. Seeing a herd of takhi galloping across the steppe — manes bristling, hooves thundering — is considered one of the most amazing wildlife sights in Asia. Their return is one of the great conservation success stories of our time.