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The return of Mongolia's "wild" horses - Nigel Rothfels

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For thousands of years, native Takhi horses roamed the steppes of Central Asia. But by the late 1960s, their extinction seemed inevitable. To prevent this, scientists and zoos started a breeding program and soon began releasing new generations of Asia's ancient wild horse back into their native habitat. Nigel Rothfels explains the twists and turns of this complicated conservation effort.

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Does it matter if the Takhi being reintroduced into reserves in China and Mongolia are at least partly the creation of Western conservationists and horse enthusiasts, and not exactly the same kind of animal that became extinct in the wild in the 1960s? Would your thoughts change if you learned that the lives of nomadic herders have been impacted to create protected reserves for Takhi?

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Nigel Rothfels
  • Director Anna Benner
  • Narrator Addison Anderson
  • Music Raphael Tschernuth
  • Sound Designer Raphael Tschernuth
  • Director of Production Gerta Xhelo
  • Senior Producer Anna Bechtol
  • Associate Producer Sazia Afrin
  • Editorial Director Alex Rosenthal
  • Senior Editorial Producer Dan Kwartler
  • Script Editor Soraya Field Fiorio
  • Fact-Checker Charles Wallace

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