In 1998, 31 Przewalski’s horses entered Chernobyl and reached 137 by 2018

When the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was abandoned after the 1986 nuclear disaster, it was not expected to become part of the future of a horse that had already vanished from the wild. Yet, more than a decade later, Przewalski’s horses were brought into the largely empty landscape in an effort to establish a free-ranging population. According to the study published in Theriologia Ukrainica, titled ‘Przewalski`s horse (Equus ferus przewalskii) in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone after 20 years of introduction’ claim that 31 horses were released in 1998 and multiplied. The records tell a more complicated story. The animals arrived over two years, some died before joining the wild population, and poaching caused serious losses during the first decade. Even so, the horses continued breeding. By 2018, 137 had been documented in Ukraine, with others across the Belarusian border.How Przewalski’s horses were introduced to the Chernobyl Exclusion ZoneThe introduction began in 1998 and continued into 1999. Twenty-eight Przewalski’s horses came from the Askania Nova Biosphere Reserve, made up of 10 males and 18 females. Three more males were brought from the zoo at the Lozovski stud-farm.That is the...