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Information about Wild Horse

This article is about genetically wild horses which have never been domesticated. For the free-roaming feral horses of the Americas, see Mustang (horse). For Domesticated horses which have reverted to the wild, see Feral horse.
Wild horse
Enlarge picture
Przewalski's Horse

Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Perissodactyla
Family:Equidae
Genus:Equus
Subgenus:Equus
Species:E. ferus
Binomial name
Equus ferus
Boddaert, 1785
Subspecies
Enlarge picture
'Bred back' Tarpan in Haselünne, Germany (2004)
The Wild Horse (Equus ferus or Equus ferus caballus) is a member of the Horse genus which currently is native only in Asia. The true wild horse is not merely a feral horse like the Mustang; a true wild horse species is one which was never successfully domesticated.

Two species or subspecies (taxonomy is debated) of wild horses survived into modern times: The Tarpan or Eurasian Wild Horse (Equus ferus ferus), once native to Europe and Asia, and the Przewalski's Horse or Mongolian Wild Horse (classification disputed, either Equus ferus przewalskii or Equus przewalskii), native to Central Asia and the Gobi Desert. The Tarpan became extinct in captivity in the Ukraine in 1918 or 1919. The Przewalski's Horse is still found today, though it is an endangered species and for a time was considered extinct in the wild. Roughly 1500 animals are protected in zoos around the world, and today, a small breeding population has been reintroduced in Mongolia.[1] As of 2005, a cooperative venture between the Zoological Society of London and Mongolian Scientists has resulted in a free-ranging population of 248 animals in the wild.[2]

The Przewalski has notable biological differences from the domestic horse; unlike domesticated horses, which have 64 chromosomes, the wild horse has 66 chromosomes. However, the offspring of Przewalski and domestic horses are fertile, possessing 65 chromosomes.[3]

Other species of wild horses were once indigenous to North America, as well, populating the continent before and during the last Ice Age. Approximately 10,000 years ago, some horses in the Western Hemisphere migrated to Eurasia across the Bering land bridge, and fanned out from Siberia to the rest of Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. What horses remained behind became extinct in North America. There are several competing theories about why this happened. One theory holds that climate changes associated with the end of the last Ice Age caused the extinction of the horse, the mammoth and other large land animals. Another theory holds that newly-arrived humans hunted horses to extinction. A third holds that the newly arrived humans brought a biological factor which caused the demise of horses and other large ungulates in the Americas. It is also possible that it was a combination of factors.[4]

Taxonomy

While taxonomy is debated, one view is that the wild horse and domestic horse belong to the same species. Thus, to conform to the Code of the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature the scientific name of the wild horse Equus ferus was discontinued by Wilson and Reeder in 1993 and wild horses were added to Equus caballus, the name given by Linnaeus. Some scientists criticized this change of the scientific name, arguing in favor of a distinction between wild and feral or domesticated animals.[5]

As a result, in 2003, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature "conserved the usage of 17 specific names based on wild species, which are pre-dated by or contemporary with those based on domestic forms", re-confirming Equus ferus for the wild horse. Taxonomists who consider the domestic horse a subspecies of the wild horse should use Equus ferus caballus but the name Equus caballus remains available for the domestic horse where it is considered to be a separate species. [6]

Feral horses

Enlarge picture
Feral horse in the Pentland Hills, Scotland. Feral horses, though popularly called "wild" horses, are not truly wild; their ancestors were domesticated animals.
Main articles: Feral horse and Mustang (horse)
Horses which live in an untamed state but have ancestors who have been domesticated are not true "wild" horses; they are feral horses. The best known examples of feral horses are the "wild" horses of the American west. When Europeans reintroduced the horse to the Americas, beginning with the arrival of the Conquistadors in the 15th century, some horses escaped and formed feral herds known today as Mustangs. The Australian equivalent to the mustang is the brumby, descendants of the horses let loose in Australia by English settlers. In Spain, the free-ranging feral horse is known as Sorraia. There are also isolated populations of feral horses in a number of places, including Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia, and Assateague Island off the coast of Virginia. Some of these horses are said to be the descendants of horses who managed to swim to land when they were shipwrecked. Others may have been deliberately brought to various islands by settlers and either left to reproduce freely, or abandoned when assorted human settlements failed. While these are often referred to as "wild" horses, they are not truly "wild" in the biological sense of having no domesticated ancestors.

References

1. ^ "Przewalski's Horse," Smithsonian National Zoological Park, accessed June 25, 2006
2. ^ "An extraordinary return from the brink of extinction for worlds last wild horse" ZSL Living Conservation, December 19, 2005.
3. ^ The American Museum of Natural History When Is a Wild Horse Actually a Feral Horse?
4. ^ "Ice Age Horses May Have Been Killed Off by Humans" National Geographic News, May 1, 2006.
5. ^ Van Vuure, C. 2005. Retracing the Aurochs: History, Morphology and Ecology of an Extinct Wild Ox. Pensoft Publishers. Sofia-Moscow.
6. ^ International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. 2003. Opinion 2027 (Case 3010). Usage of 17 specific names based on wild species which are pre-dated by or contemporary with those based on domestic animals (Lepidoptera, Osteichthyes, Mammalia): conserved. Bull.Zool.Nomencl., 60:81-84.

See also

Feral horses are free-roaming, untamed horses who are descended from domesticated horses. As such, they do not meet the definition of "true" wild horses that never had domesticated ancestors. All feral horses are descended from domestic horses that strayed or escaped into the wild.
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Mustang is a free-roaming feral horse of the North American west. It first descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish.[1] The name "Mustang" is also popular for high-performance products and sports mascots.
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Feral horses are free-roaming, untamed horses who are descended from domesticated horses. As such, they do not meet the definition of "true" wild horses that never had domesticated ancestors. All feral horses are descended from domestic horses that strayed or escaped into the wild.
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E. f. przewalskii

Trinomial name
Equus ferus przewalskii
(Poliakov, 1881)

Range map


Przewalski's Horse (Equus ferus przewalskii or Equus caballus przewalskii,
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conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species: not simply the number remaining, but the
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endangered species is a population of an organism which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in number, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters.
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Mammalia
Linnaeus, 1758

Subclasses & Infraclasses
  • Subclass †Allotheria*
  • Subclass Prototheria
  • Subclass Theria

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Perissodactyla
Owen, 1848

Families

Equidae
Tapiridae
Rhinocerotidae
Brontotheriidae (extinct)
Chalicotheriidae (extinct)
Hyracodontidae (extinct)
Palaeotheriidae (extinct)
Amynodontidae (extinct)

The odd-toed ungulates
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Equidae
Gray, 1821

Genus: Equus
Linnaeus, 1758

Species

E. asinus - Donkey
E. africanus - African Wild Ass
E. caballus - Domestic Horse
E.
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Equidae
Gray, 1821

Genus: Equus
Linnaeus, 1758

Species

E. asinus - Donkey
E. africanus - African Wild Ass
E. caballus - Domestic Horse
E.
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Equidae
Gray, 1821

Genus: Equus
Linnaeus, 1758

Species

E. asinus - Donkey
E. africanus - African Wild Ass
E. caballus - Domestic Horse
E.
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binomial nomenclature is the formal system of naming species. The system is also called binominal nomenclature (particularly in zoological circles), binary nomenclature (particularly in botanical circles), or the binomial classification system.
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Pieter Boddaert (1730 - 1795 or 1796) was a Dutch physician and naturalist.

Boddaert was a lecturer on natural history at the University of Utrecht. In 1783 he published fifty copies of an identification key of Edmé-Louis Daubenton's Planches enluminees
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The introduction of this article is too short.
To comply with Wikipedia's lead section guidelines, it should be expanded.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page and read the lead section guide to make sure the introduction summarizes the article.
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extinction is the cessation of existence of a species or group of taxa, reducing biodiversity. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species (although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point).
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E. f. ferus

Trinomial name
Equus ferus ferus
Boddaert, 1785

The Tarpan, Equus ferus ferus, was the Eurasian wild horse. The last specimen of this species died in captivity in Ukraine in 1918 or 1919.
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E. f. przewalskii

Trinomial name
Equus ferus przewalskii
(Poliakov, 1881)

Range map


Przewalski's Horse (Equus ferus przewalskii or Equus caballus przewalskii,
..... Click the link for more information.
Equidae
Gray, 1821

Genus: Equus
Linnaeus, 1758

Species

E. asinus - Donkey
E. africanus - African Wild Ass
E. caballus - Domestic Horse
E.
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Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.4% of its land area) and, with almost 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population.
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feral organism is one that has escaped from domestication and returned, partly or wholly, to its wild state. Rarely will a local environment perfectly integrate the feral organism into its established ecology.
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Mustang is a free-roaming feral horse of the North American west. It first descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish.[1] The name "Mustang" is also popular for high-performance products and sports mascots.
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domestication of the horse. Although horses appeared in Paleolithic cave art as early as 30,000 BC, these were truly wild horses and were probably hunted for meat; how and when horses became domesticated is less clear.
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E. f. ferus

Trinomial name
Equus ferus ferus
Boddaert, 1785

The Tarpan, Equus ferus ferus, was the Eurasian wild horse. The last specimen of this species died in captivity in Ukraine in 1918 or 1919.
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Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. Physically and geologically, Europe is the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, west of Asia. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea,
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E. f. przewalskii

Trinomial name
Equus ferus przewalskii
(Poliakov, 1881)

Range map


Przewalski's Horse (Equus ferus przewalskii or Equus caballus przewalskii,
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Gobi (Chinese: 戈壁(沙漠) Gēbì (Shāmò); Mongolian: Говь, Govi or Gov
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extinction is the cessation of existence of a species or group of taxa, reducing biodiversity. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species (although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point).
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