Twenty-eight Przewalski's horses were released into the wild at the Dunhuang Xihu National Nature Reserve in northwest China's Gansu Province on Tuesday, bringing the total number of the endangered animal in the area to 212.
The horses embarked on a transfer journey of 1,030 kilometers on Monday from a protection center in Gansu's Wuwei City. This was China's first time to transfer the horses, which were neither anesthetized nor containerized.
Przewalski's horses, which have an evolutionary history of 60 million years, are under first-class protection in China.
The animal was once extinct in the wild in China due to poaching and environmental changes.
In 1985, China began to reintroduce the horses from overseas, and breed them at the bases in Gansu and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
After years of efforts, the population of Przewalski's horses has now exceeded 900 in China, accounting for approximately one-third of the world's total.
28 Przewalski's horses released into wild in Gansu
