- According to a recent study by the scientists of University of Kansas, all the wild horses of world are now extinct.
- As per the study published in the Journal Science, Przewalski’s horses, which were considered to be last surviving wild horses till now, were not the wild horses but the feral horses.
- Przewalskis were officially declared “extinct in the wild” in 1969, and today, there are still only about 2,000.
- It means that they descended from domesticated horses that later returned to the wild.
- The study is based on the new DNA analysis of bones and teeths of 20 horses of Botai and Krasnyi Yar. These two places are in northern Kazakhstan, where scientists have found the earliest proof of horse domestication going back more than 5,000 years. it can be said clearly that all the wild horses in the world have become extinct.
- IUCN now considers Przewalski as a subspecies of extinct Equus ferus and has kept it in a endangered category.
- But the new research could change the situation.
