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PZP Helping Endangered
Species
Prezwalski Horses
The Prezwalski horse (Equus
przewalskii Poljakow) is an ancient species of wild horse
that once lived in Mongolia. It is now thought to be extinct
in the wild. According to Species Profiles "Prezwalski's
horse is virtually extinct in its native Mongolian habitat
because of overhunting and the spread of the human population...
By 1879, Prezwalski's horses were already in danger of becoming
extinct." Before these horses disappeared from the wild,
however, some were captured and brought to zoos and refuges,
where they have survived. A number of organizations are now
attempting to re-introduce these rare horses into Mongolia.
Prezwalski's horses are small, the size of a pony; they are
dun colored, with a dark dorsal stripe, that is, a stripe
running down their back, and according to the above-mentioned
source, they are "the only horse to have a stiff, brushlike
mane" that is, a mane that stands up.
The horses shown in these photographs were preserved by a
French non-profit organization known as the "Association
pour le cheval de Prezwalski: TAKH." The photographs
were taken by Pierre Goeldlin in southern France, in an area
called Le Sambuc
This French organization planned to ship approximately 15-20
mares to the Mongolian Preserve in the summer of 2004. They
temporarily contracepted these mares with PZP in preparation
for the long trip since they did not want to transport pregnant
mares for fear of stress related abortions. Irwin KM Liu,
DVM, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Population Health and
Reproduction, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of
California, Davis has supported these efforts, and indeed,
the lab at UC, Davis donated the PZP with which the horses
were inoculated.
Because zoos lack sufficient space to allow all of their animals
to reproduce every year, they have used PZP, a reversible
contraceptive, to limit reproduction Nevertheless, because
baby animals are appealing and attract the public, at least
in the past, some zoos permitted their animals to reproduce
and then later sold the "excess" animals when they
were grown. Some of these animals from zoos have ended up
in canned hunts. Such practices have been severely criticized.
This use of PZP in helping to establish Prezwalski horses
in Mongolia shows another aspect of the importance of having
a reversible contraceptive.
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