Of wild horses and camel treks

at hustai national park (wearing my mongol deel/coat)

The Przewalskii horse (I know, unpronounceable) is the only living wild horse. Locally known as the ‘Takhi’ horse, it became extinct in the 60s. It was then re-introduced 20 years ago from various zoos that sent descendants of Takhi horses that had been captured up to a century ago. 

The reason the Przewalskii horse is considered the only wild horse today is because other so called ‘wild’ horses are in fact feral horses descendant from previously domesticated horses. In comparison, the Przewalskii horse was never domesticated. The zebra, for example, is another type of wild equine. 

Scientists believe the Przewalskii horse diverged from today’s domestic horse between 80,000 to 160,000 years ago. Fun fact: the domestic horse has a pair of chromosome more than the Przewalskii horse.

A more interesting fact is that they have to dig up the snow in winter to find food. Nine months of snow and sub-zero temperatures every year - quite the challenge. 

The national park is beautiful in itself with lots of fat marmots running around. We saw plenty of wild horses who did not seem bothered the least by our presence. We were very lucky - we had been warned we might not even see one!

horse spotting in the park

While the Przewalskii horse continues to enjoy being undomesticated most bactrian camels are working hard. These two-humped camels, much rarer than the one-humped dromedary, is mainly found in Central Asia. There are so few wild bactrian camels left (mainly found in Mongolia) they are considered to be a threatened specie. 

It is surprisingly comfortable and therefore not all that surprising that it was used to travel on the Silk Road, back in the days. Today, nomadic families still use camels as pack animals to move their stuff around or to travel long distance in inhospitable climates, of which there is plenty in Mongolia. 

an interesting mix of sand dunes and lush green grass

it's amazing to see how easily children can control the camels

And here’s another fun fact: the first geographer to describe the bactrian camel was no other than our friend Przewalskii after whom the Przewalskii horse was named. Small world.