URUMQI, April 24 (Xinhua) — A total of 30 Przewalski’s horses were successfully reintroduced to the Kalamaili Nature Reserve in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Wednesday after completing pre-release training.
“This is the largest-scale release in the history of our reserve, and it is also the first time we have used enclosed trucks for bulk transport of Przewalski’s horses,” said Zhang Hefan, a senior engineer at the nature reserve management center.
According to Zhang, in late October 2025, 30 Przewalski’s horses were transported in three batches from a horse breeding research institute located 180 kilometers away to the nature reserve’s monitoring station in Xinjiang’s Junggar Basin. There, they naturally integrated with more than 100 Przewalski’s horses that had returned to the fenced area for winter supplemental feeding. After a winter of adaptation and free competition within the population, they gradually formed a new stable group.
The Przewalski’s horse, a globally endangered species under first-class national protection in China, once faced near extinction in the wild. In 1985, China launched a reintroduction program, bringing the horses back from abroad and establishing a Przewalski’s horse breeding base in Xinjiang.
After more than 40 years of protection, breeding and rewilding efforts, the number of wild and artificially-bred Przewalski’s horses in China has continued to increase. In Xinjiang alone, the wild population has grown steadily to 392 individuals. ■
