![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Przewalskis-Horse-Foal-with-adult-by-Ken-Bohn-released-by-San-Diego-Zoo-Wildlife-Alliance-1024x628.j.jpeg\")
A Przewalski\u2019s horse with its foal in the care of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance<\/p>\n A Przewalski\u2019s horse with its foal in the care of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance<\/p>\n
3 years ago, the last non-domesticated species of horse was reintroduced into a Spanish woodland in the hopes they would act upon the land as wild equines had done for thousands of years.<\/p>\n
The Iberian Highlands Rewilding Project<\/a> (IHRP) is now happy to report that 10 foals have been born since then, as the Przewalski\u2019s horse gradually became accustomed to the scrubby, dryer world in the forest\u2019s beyond Madrid.<\/p>\n Despite originating in the wide open plains of northern China and Mongolia, the Przewalski\u2019s horse was the conservationists\u2019 only chance of seeing a wild equine in Spain.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the only horse found anywhere on Earth that hasn\u2019t interbred with domesticated horses over the last 6,000 years. Once seriously threatened with extinction, captive breeding programs have seen the animal return to pastures across Eurasia.<\/p>\n \u201cThe horses are engineers of the forest,\u201d says Pablo Schapira, a team leader at IHRP. \u201cWhat we want to do is to put back the pieces of the puzzle so that nature can lead the way to a new environment.\u201d<\/p>\n Overly ambitious? Maybe, but then again, the area the IHRP is working in is more than 1.8 million acres, and sometimes called \u201cEmpty Spain,\u201d or \u201cLa Espana Vacia,\u201d as it\u2019s seen widespread depopulation over the decades. Today, these vast tracks of wild forests and neglected rangeland are at substantial risk of wildfire ever since the natural grazers were displaced, hunted, or driven off.<\/p>\n YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Iberian Lynx Slinks Back From Brink of Extinction Within Just Two Decades of Conservation<\/a><\/p>\n The hope is that Przewalski\u2019s horse, together with European bison, deer, and a specially-bred species of wild cattle<\/a> supposed to take the place of the giant wild bovid that went extinct during the Middle Ages, will be able to control understory growth and reduce both the risk of fires starting and the intensity of fires that do start.<\/p>\n Local rewilding initiatives in Empty Spain and beyond have been given some $200,000 in loans from Rewilding Spain, the national chapter of Rewilding Europe, one of the largest conservation NGOs on the continent.<\/p>\n