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Przewalski's horse[pshuvAl´skEz] Pronunciation Key, wild horse of Asia, Equus przewalski, the only extant wild horse that, in the purebred state, is not descended from the domestic horse. Smaller than most domestic horses, it has a large head and bulging forehead. It is dun-colored, with an upright crest of dark hair on its head and neck, a dark stripe along the backbone, and a dark, plumed tail. Its former range probably extended from W Mongolia to N Xinjiang, China, but it survives now only on the semidesert plain of the Altai Mts. in SW Mongolia, although the herds migrate seasonally into the Gobi Desert. The reduction of the species is largely due to competition with domestic livestock for grazing land and water. Surviving members have interbred with feral horses (wild descendants of domestic horses) to such an extent that it is not certain that there are any purebred herds left in the wild. Indeed, since interbreeding with Mongol horses may have begun centuries ago, it is possible that even the original specimens of Przewalski's horse to be described were actually of mixed descent. There are many specimens in zoos, where they breed well. Tarpan is the name for members of another race of the same species, E. przewalski gmelini, which formerly ranged over the steppes of E Europe and W Asia, but has been extinct since the last century. The horses were discovered by Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky, a Russian explorer and geographer, in the 1870s. Wild horses are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Perissodactyla, family Equidae.
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