Officials celebrate return of rare wild horse species after 6,000-year absence: 'It was amazing, a once-in-a-lifetime experience'

Efforts to reintroduce a native horse species in Kazakhstan have been given a boost from neighboring countries. 

According to the Good News Network, the nation's government is working on ensuring the future of Przewalski's horses. 

Five mares and two stallions have arrived from Berlin and Prague, and Hungary has announced it is shipping 150 more horses to the territory imminently.

Przewalski's horses are believed to be the last non-domesticated horses on the planet.

As Good News Network detailed, it is estimated that humans domesticated horses around 6,000 years ago on what is known as the Eurasian Steppe.

This had a profound impact on the history of mankind,  but also on the populations of various horse species.

Once humans realized the potential of domesticated horses, some species were essentially interbred out of existence. Przewalski's horses remain an exception.

Kazakhstan, which makes up a large part of the Eurasian Steppe, has made impressive efforts to reintroduce Przewalski's horses to their original habitat while rebuilding their population numbers. 

This is one of many conservation efforts in Kazakhstan. The country has also tried to restore the numbers of the saiga antelope, Bukhara deer, and a subspecies of tiger known as the "Turanian" tiger. 

The government has created the Ile-Balkhash Nature Reserve to assist in these efforts, per The Times of Central Asia. In fact, Kazakhstan has over 30.9 million hectares that are designated as naturally protected areas.

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Conservation efforts are essential to the health of our environment and planet. The return of a species to its natural habitat helps revive natural ecosystems and promotes biodiversity. This is good for plant and animal life as well as humans, as it helps keep our food chain thriving.

Similar conservation efforts are occurring throughout the world. In Brazil, for example, the numbers of golden lion tamarins have increased 31%, according to the most recent census. Elsewhere, the Persian onager, a species of wild donkey, has been reintroduced to Saudi Arabia after one hundred years of local extinction.

When it comes to the Przewalski's horses, Hungary was happy to help. 

"This step will increase safety for the horse species in case of disease outbreaks," said István Nagy, the Hungarian Minister of Agriculture, per The Times of Central Asia. 

Filip Mašek, a spokesman for the Prague Zoo who assisted in the reintroduction, was just happy to be there, as CNN shared. 

"To see the first horses actually run out of the box, people were crying," Mašek noted. "It was amazing, a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

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