Przewalski's horse | Le Villaret | Research | Reintroduction

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We chose to transport the horses by plane because it is fastest, and avoids the vagaries of crossing numerous boundaries between France and Mongolia. We therefore had to comply with the requirements of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which specifies the  model of crates used to transport Przewalski’s horses.

It takes a lot of handling to put a Przewalski's horse in a crate, but the Le Villaret horses were no longer used to human contact and handling, as the whole purpose of Le Villaret was to transform quiet zoo individuals into wild, tough animals! We therfore trained the horses to enter the crates more or less by themselves using the following protocol:

The horses were penned as family groups in small enclosures at Le Villaret several weeks prior to the departure to Mongolia. The horses were fed with hay, which was placed in a stall in the enclosures. On the day of boarding when the horses were eating the hay they were enclosed inside the stalls. The transport crate was adjoined to the stall, and the horse was forced to move back into it.

boarding stall with crates against it

Once all horses were loaded in their crates, the transport started: see logistics.

The equipment was built at Le Villaret at the beginning of 2004. Each crate was made to fit the size of each individual, who were measured by eye from a distance against a measuring post.

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