Rare wild horse born in Xinjiang

URUMQI -- A Przewalski's horse was born in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region recently, bringing the population of the rare horse species to 381 in the region.

The female foal was born on Jan 21 at the regional wild horse breeding center.

Since its establishment over 30 years ago, the center had previously never seen a foal born in such cold weather as most births occurred in spring and summer.

Staff were worried about whether the foal could cope with the extreme cold, as the temperature was around minus 30 degrees Celsius, according to Zhang Hefan, a staff member at the center

The foal was taken from its mother and spent its first day indoors to be kept warm, where it was fed bottled donkey milk.

It was returned to its mother the second day, and now is able to play on the snow-covered ground.

Przewalski's horses historically lived on grasslands that are now part of China's Xinjiang and its neighboring country Mongolia. The breed became extinct in the wild in China in the 1960s due to over-hunting and was reintroduced to Xinjiang and Gansu from horses captively-bred in Europe in the late 1980s.

There are currently about 2,000 Przewalski's horses worldwide, even less than the number of giant pandas.