Word: przewalskis
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Dates: during 1952-1952
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...Heck in the latest Oryx, journal of Britain's Fauna Preservation Society, flourished as long ago as the Ice Age. Stone-Age man hunted them for food and decorated his caves with their pictures. The last true wild horses were found in the 1880s by the Russian explorer Przewalski. But the shaggy animals which Przewalski brought back from Dzungaria were heavy-boned, with long and awkward heads. They may well have been the ancestors of today's cart horses. There are some Przewalski horses still living in the Hellabrunn Zoo, and Dr. Heck began his experiments in backward...
...Przewalski horses have few characteristics of the tarpan, so Dr. Heck brought mares from Iceland and Gotland. Surprisingly like tarpans in skull and build, the mares were bred to Przewalski stallions. Although none of the original brood mares was grey, when crossbred mares were bred to crossbred stallions, they occasionally produced tarpanlike, mouse-grey foals. By discarding the foals that inherited Przewalski heads, by selecting a color here, a skull shape there, working always to reproduce the most backward characteristics, Dr. Heck finally got a herd of horses with tarpan build and the typical tarpan color...
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