Oldest Known Przewalski Horse Dies

The world’s oldest known Przewalski horse, a mare called Cilka whose ancestors lived in the grasslands of central Asia, has died in the Prague zoo in the Czech Republic.

Cilka was euthanatized Saturday, zoo spokesman Vit Kahle said. The

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The world’s oldest known Przewalski horse, a mare called Cilka whose ancestors lived in the grasslands of central Asia, has died in the Prague zoo in the Czech Republic.


Cilka was euthanatized Saturday, zoo spokesman Vit Kahle said. The horse was 34 years old, making her the oldest known specimen of the endangered wild horse, he said.


“We had to do it, she was suffering too much,” he said. Only about two dozen of the world’s estimated 2,000 Przewalski horses are over age 30, he said.


The Przewalski horse, or Takh, a national symbol in Mongolia, is the only surviving subspecies of horse that has never been domesticated. The horses once inhabited grasslands of central Asia, but became extinct in the wild in the 1960s.
 
A successful breeding program relying on captive animals started in 1992 and has led to the species being reintroduced into several Mongolian national parks. Some 300 of the horses now live in the wild

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