The Przewalski's horse nearly disappeared into extinction; the species was listed as extinct in the wild in the 1960s until the 1990s, when one surviving individual was found in the wild. Their original decline was brought about by hunting, loss of water resources to domestic animals, and loss of habitat. Hybridization with domestic horses was (and is) a threat. All the Przewalski's horses alive today are descended from 12 horses — 11 captured and brought out of Mongolia around 1900, and a female captured in 1947.Captive breeding has increased the species' numbers from a low of about 30 individuals to approaching 2,000 individuals: the first Pedigree Book was created by zoologist Dr. Erna Mohr and the first Przewalksi's horse born through artificial insemination was in 2013. Despite the careful captive breeding programs to minimize inbreeding and thus maximize genetic diversity, a major threat to the species today remains loss of genetic diversity and thus disease.
Przewalski’s horses are named after Col. Nikolai Przewalski, who was the first Western scientist to describe the species in writing in 1878. However, the first sighting by a European occurred centuries earlier, when Johann Schiltberger recorded his sighting in the early 1400s during a trip to Mongolia while a prisoner of the Turks.
Currently, there are about 400 horses living in the wild and around 2,000 individuals in captive breeding programs and zoos, and the species' status is now listed as endangered.
The four largest reserves where captive Przewalski's horses roam are in Le Villaret, France; Buchara, Uzbekistan; the Hortobágy-National Park, Hungary; and the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Ukraine. The horses released in the exclusion zone thrived and their numbers grew to a high of around 200, but poaching has reduced their population to about 60 individuals in recent years.