Encounter przewalski's wild horses

　Gao Fang

　　"This trip to Xinjiang, I did not dare to expect to see wild horses. But sometimes good luck comes, and I can't stop it, and I actually saw the Przewalski's Wild Horse! A travel blogger excitedly shared on her blog the experiences and pictures of her encounter with Przewalski's wild horses on her way back from Kanas to Urumqi not long ago.

　　It reminds me of an experience I once had with a Przewalski's Wild Horse.

　　That time was also on the way to Kanas via xinjiang's Karamaili Mountain Ungulate Wildlife Nature Reserve, a car of people was already drowsy, and suddenly someone shouted: "Look, is that a wild horse?" "Following the prestige, on the Gobi Desert a few tens of meters away, there are several Przewalski's wild horses gathered together. The whole car suddenly came to the spirit, suggesting that the driver park the car on the side of the road, the driver said: "Just look at the car for a while, people will scare them away as soon as they get out of the car." ”

　　It was late summer and early autumn, and the midday sun was very strong, and the Gobi Desert was full of white flowers. Looking out of the window, the mustangs had only a dark brown mane and a black ponytail on their heads, and four short legs like black stockings, their light brown fur almost blended in with the surrounding wilderness, and if they were farther away, they would probably miss it sitting on a high-speed car.

Wild horse herd at the Xinjiang Wild Horse Breeding Research Center (photo taken on August 27). Photo by Zhang Yun

　　It was the first time I had seen a Przewalski's wild horse in the wilderness, its short, stocky figure, its upright short mane in stark contrast to the flowing long mane of the domestic horse, and a circle of white fur outside the black mouth, which looked very cute and cute, with a natural cartoon temperament, which was very suitable for being depicted by children's clumsy brushes.

　　Unfortunately, the driver had to hurry to hurry, we stayed for a short time, and this hasty encounter with the Przewalski's Mustang only left a glimpse of memory.

　　Still reading Liu Zichao's book "The Lost Satellite: A Journey Deep into Central Asia", mentioning a passage from the Russian explorer Nikolai Przewalski, I ruminated baidu the origin of the name of the Przewalski.

　　In 1878, the Russian officer Przewalski encountered wild horses while exploring the Junggar Basin, and entered the area three times for hunting. The process of their hunting of wild horses is heart-wrenching, because the wild horses run too fast for ordinary horses to catch up, they use 4 horses to rotate to chase a mare and a foal that has just been born for 3 hours, after the mare is shot to the ground, the foal is also hit when the bullet is folded back to the mare, and the foal kneels in front of the mare, neck to neck. Eventually, mares were made into specimens and shipped back to Russia, which became a sensation in the West, and this group of wild horses became known as Przewalski's wild horses.

　　Przewalski's wild horse is currently one of the most endangered large wild animals in the world, is a national first-class protected animal, distributed in China's Junggar Basin and Mongolia's arid desert grasslands, is currently the only surviving wild horse on the earth, but also has a history of more than 60 million years of evolution "living fossils".

　　Thanks to the scientific management of researchers and the increase in ecological environmental protection, the Population of Przewalski's Wild Horse of Xinjiang Wild Horse Breeding Research Center has continued to expand. At present, in the Xinjiang Karameri Mountain Ungulate Wildlife Nature Reserve, There are more than 200 Przewalski's wild horses, coupled with the semi-scattered wild horses in xinjiang Tianshan Wildlife Park, Xinjiang has become the province with the largest number of Przewalski's wild horses in China.

　　Now that I think about it, it is indeed a rare opportunity to meet such a rare Przewalski's wild horse in my life, how can I not cherish it?