Context
We aim to establish a population of Przewalski's horses in Mongolia from individuals trained to live in the wild and develop natural social relationships, bred at Le Villaret in France.This population will be the third sub-population of Przewalski's horses in Mongolia, the other reintroduction sites were established in the 1990s. One is located fairly close to Ulaanbaatar (Hustai National Park) and the other is in the Gobi desert (Takhiin Tal).
Over the long term, exchanges will be organized between the three sites to minimize inbreeding.
Approach
A fully planned reintroduction consists of more than just taking some animals from a zoo and releasing them into a random place. Biologists from the Species Survival Comission (SSC) of the IUCN gathered together information from previous reintroductions in order to advise on the best practice for future reintroductions, forming Guidelines for Reintroduction.This document can be
accessed here: http://data.iucn.org/themes/ssc/publications/policy/reinte.htm
A special part of our project was the importance given to behavioural aspects. We therefore paid a lot of attention to certain recommendations stressed by these guidelines: