Mongolia dragged its wild horses back from extinction – can it save the rest of its wildlife?

A group of wild Przewalski horses, or takhi as they are called in Mongolia, in Hustai national park. Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

Hunched against the early winter chill, Dashpurev Tserendeleg points out the horses on a nearby mountain slope, while a small throng of students and tourists peer through binoculars and take pictures on their phones.

With their stocky bodies and thick necks, they resemble ponies more than horses. Known to Mongolians as takhi and to the rest of the world as Przewalski’s horse, they are the only equine breed never to be domesticated – and the fruits of one of the most successful ever wildlife reintroduction schemes.