An endangered wild horse foal, critically ill and rejected by his mother, has found an unlikely saviour in a domestic pony, in a rare interspecies adoption at the Minnesota Zoo. Marat, a Przewalski’s horse, faced a grim future until Alice, a Pony of the Americas, stepped in as his surrogate mother, offering a lifeline to a species teetering on the brink of extinction.
Born nearly two months ago, Marat, whose name means "one who is brave," suffered from limb problems that hindered his ability to stand straight. This led to him spending too much time on the ground, resulting in a severe bacterial sepsis, pneumonia, and wounds. Despite intensive care at the University of Minnesota’s equine unit, his biological mother, Nady, a first-time parent, refused to accept him back into the herd.
