Small bands of Przewalski's horses now graze and move across the Kalamaili Nature Reserve in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of northwest China, according to The Tanzania Times. The species, the last truly wild horse left on Earth, had vanished from the wild in China by the 1970s. Four decades of breeding and reintroduction work have brought it back to the steppe, and the focus has now shifted from rebuilding numbers to keeping the animals alive without constant human help.
Why it matters
The return of a species once lost from its native range is rare, and the Przewalski's horse case is unusual because the animals are being asked to survive on their own rather than simply exist in enclosures. The Tanzania Times reports that roughly 180 horses raised under human care had been returned to the wild in Xinjiang by January 2026. That figure represents both the scale of the effort and the size of the remaining task: a population that must now cope with weather, predators and competition among stallions without a keeper nearby.
From eleven horses to a breeding program
China's involvement began in 1985, when 11 Przewalski's horses were brought from Germany and the United Kingdom to Xinjiang. The same year, authorities set up the Xinjiang Wild Horse Breeding and Research Center to support the species' recovery. The first foal was born there three years later, and by 2000 the center had recorded about 100 births.
Breeding alone was never the endpoint. The plan was to put the horses back on open land, where their survival would depend on far more than feeding schedules. In 2001, 27 animals were released straight into the Kalamaili reserve in the Junggar Basin. The Tanzania Times reports that the attempt failed because the horses had no preparation period: three died after struggling to adjust to the abrupt change. Harsh weather, limited food and water, and fights between stallions all worked against them.
Zhang Yanbao, who tracked the horses for seven years after that first release, recalled one episode from the early days. After a mare died, her two daughters stayed near their younger brother and shielded him during conflicts within the herd. The young stallion, identified as No. 147, also stayed with the group longer than usual. Dominant males normally chase off younger rivals once they mature, but this one remained, grew strong, and in the same year he was finally expelled he managed to gather mares and form a herd of his own.
A halfway stage before full release
The program now uses a gradual approach. Horses chosen for release spend between six months and a year in a transitional zone of about 20 square kilometers inside the reserve. There they learn to locate food and water, get used to the terrain, and adapt to receiving less from people. At the breeding center the animals are fed twice a day; in the transitional area, food arrives only once every three to five days, which pushes them to forage for themselves.
Xue Jiannan, an animal science engineer at the center, told The Tanzania Times that horses have sharp senses and can pick up where grass and water are more plentiful outside the enclosure even before they leave it. Winter brings its own difficulties: heavy snow can cover the grass, while too little snow can leave water sources frozen over.
Rangers watch the herds and step in when needed, supplying food or water in extreme weather and summoning vets when an injury or illness becomes life-threatening. The aim, according to the reporting, is not to remove every danger but to give the horses the best chance of managing on their own.
One case from 2016 illustrates how far that support can go. Two stallions fought, and one bit the other's genitals. The wound became infected, and the injured animal could not walk when it was found. Entemahan Azhanhan, a senior veterinarian at the center, described anesthetizing the horse, cutting away infected tissue and stitching the wound, then treating him for ten days with topical medicine, anti-inflammatory injections and painkillers. The stallion recovered and kept his ability to reproduce.
Working in a remote reserve
Looking after horses in such an isolated place can be as hard as the conditions the animals face. In the early 2000s, monitoring equipment was scarce and digital communications in Kalamaili were unreliable. Rangers often traveled in pairs, following animals across a wide landscape where wolves and other hazards were a constant presence.
Zhang also remembered a summer afternoon when his vehicle broke down inside the reserve. He and a colleague could not fix it, and staying overnight was not an option because of nocturnal predators. They ran for seven hours without stopping to rest or drink, he told The Tanzania Times.
The next phase will test whether the released herds can sustain themselves as the population grows and the program moves further from hands-on management.
