When something good disappears forever, sadness settles in the soul. It is especially disappointing if what is irretrievably lost are cute living beings who had every right to live on our planet.
We are talking about the tarpan horse, which added to the sad list of animals exterminated by the reckless actions of man. It is hard to believe that even some one hundred and fifty - two hundred years ago, whole herds of these horses rushed across the steppes. How come there aren't any left now?
Description of the tarpan horse
What they looked like can only be seen in pictures or old photos.
There were 2 types of these horses - steppe and forest. Representatives of these species were the size of large ponies. Steppe tarpans were distinguished by their strong physique and endurance. They had a short, very thick, slightly wavy coat. In summer, its color varied from black-brown to dirty yellow, and in winter it became mousey (silver, gray) in color. The back of the horses was decorated with a longitudinal dark stripe. As can be seen from the drawings and photos of horses left by our ancestorstarpan, they had a short erect mane, which made them look like Przewalski's horses. They had a short tail, slender legs, with zebroid markings. The hooves of the tarpans were highly durable, so they did not need horseshoes. The height of the horses at the withers ranged from 136 to 140 cm, and their body length did not exceed 150 cm.
The tarpan forest horse looked very similar to the steppe horse, but did not have such endurance. This is easily explained by the peculiarities of their habitats - in the forests it was not necessary to make long transitions in search of food, which were made by steppe horses.
The head of the tarpans was hook-nosed and relatively thick, and the ears were erect and pointed.
Habitat
From the Turkic language "tarpan" can be translated as "to fly forward". These animals were exactly like that - fast as the wind. The steppe horse tarpan in VII-VIII could be massively found on the plains and plateaus of many European countries (in the southern and southeastern regions), in Western Siberia, on the lands of present-day Kazakhstan. There were many of them in the Voronezh region and in Ukraine.
Forest tarpans lived in Central Europe. They were massively found in the forests of Poland, East Prussia, Lithuania, Belarus. According to Strabo (I century BC), tarpans even lived in the Alps and on the plains of Spain.
Lifestyle, behavior
We have received information that forest horses tarpans were the most cautious and very shy animals. They lived in small groups, in which there could be several males.(most often, one) and many females. They ate grass, young branches of trees and shrubs, they could eat mushrooms and berries.
Steppe tarpans were also very shy, extremely wild, tamed with great difficulty. People caught mainly pregnant mares and small foals who had not yet learned to run fast. After living in captivity for some time, they fled as soon as they had the opportunity. Due to their small stature, they were not used very willingly in chores, especially as riding horses.
Steppe tarpans lived in large herds, in which there were 100 individuals or more. Often, matured males led away mares and formed their own small "harems". They were very caring "sultans", they never ate at the same time as the females, but occupied an observation post and made sure that the "ladies" were not in any danger, guarded them on the way to the watering place and to the pasture.
Tarpans were able to do without water for a long time. To quench their thirst, they had enough morning dew, which they licked from the grass.
Pedigree
When the last ice age ended (about 10 thousand years ago), hundreds of thousands of horses lived on the plains and plateaus of Asia and Europe. Scientists attribute all to one species - a wild horse. These animals are the ancestors of tarpans.
This species in the scientific world is called Equus ferus. According to taxonomy, it belongs to the genus Horse (Equus). It has three subspecies:
- Przewalski's horse.
- Tarpan.
- Domestic horse.
The separation between the first two subspecies occurred about 40 - 70 thousand years ago.
Scientists consider Tarpanov to be the ancestors of our domestic horses. Now their descendants, obtained by multiple crossings, can be seen in many farms. There is no such data on the crossing of Przewalski's horses with domestic ones.
History of Tarpans
After the ice age, when there were still relatively few people, wild horses inhabited vast territories. In search of food, their numerous herds often migrated across the steppes from region to region. Cro-Magnons hunted them for their meat, as evidenced by dozens of rock carvings.
As the human population increased, the herds of wild horses dwindled. The reason for this was not so much the extermination of animals as the agricultural activities of our distant ancestors. They plowed up the steppes, built settlements, depriving animals of their natural pastures.
Gradually, herds of wild horses were reduced from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of individuals.
Przewalski's horses migrated to the Mongolian steppes, while tarpans remained in Europe and partly Kazakhstan.
Why exterminated
It is believed that there are several reasons for this:
- Wild tarpan horses in winter under the snow could not find enough food, so they often ate hay stored by people for the needs of their farms.
- Short but stately stallions during the rut could take domestic mares with them.
- Tarpan meat was considered a delicacy, so they are activelyhunted.
These main reasons led to the disappearance of small wild horses. It is known that the monks were very fond of tarpan meat. There is a document that testifies to this. So, Pope George III wrote to the abbot of one monastery that he allowed him to eat the meat of both domestic and wild horses, and now asks him to forbid it.
Tarpans were very fast, not every horse could keep up with them. People have found a way to solve this problem. They began to hunt small horses in winter, because they could not develop high speed in deep snow, they quickly got tired. If the hunters noticed a herd of tarpans, they surrounded the unfortunate animals on their frisky stallions and killed them. It is not uncommon for all individuals, adults and babies, to be destroyed in the heat of wild excitement.
By 1830, these horses lived only in the Black Sea steppes. But there was no escape for them either. In 1879, near the village of Agaiman, the last living steppe tarpan on the planet was killed. It is noteworthy that this happened just 35 km from the Askania Nova nature reserve. The last forest tarpan was shot even earlier - in 1814. It happened on the territory of the current Kaliningrad region.
Tarpans in zoos
Not all of our ancestors were cruel. Many people tried to save the species, so they put tarpans in zoological parks. So, in the Moscow Zoo for a long time they kept a mare caught near Kherson. She died here in the late 1880s. Wild horses also lived in the Poltava province. Last onplanet tarpan died in the estate near Mirgorod. It happened in 1918. The skull of this stallion is in Moscow, at the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University, and the skeleton is in St. Petersburg, at the Zoological Institute.
Polish horses
In the Polish town of Zamostye, wild tarpans also lived in the local menagerie. However, in 1808 they were all distributed to the local population. As a result of numerous crosses with domestic horses, a breed of Polish horsemen appeared. Outwardly, these animals are very similar to the wild tarpan horse. The photo presented in the article confirms this.
Koniki are small horses, up to 135 cm high at the withers. Their coat color is mossy-gray, the legs are dark, there is a longitudinal dark stripe on the back. Koniks are classified as tarpan horses. Nowadays they live in Belovezhskaya Pushcha.
Heck Horses
Another attempt to revive the tarpans was made by the German zoologists the Heck brothers. In 1930 they began work at the Munich Zoo. The first foal of the Heck horse, outwardly very similar to a tarpan, was born in 1933. Adult individuals can reach 140 cm at the withers. Their body is covered with thick, very short hair, the color of which varies from brown to mossy. In summer, the horses become light. However, genetic studies have shown that they have little in common with wild tarpans.
Instead of an epilogue
Now many living organisms are on the verge of extinction. Each of us should try to preserve what nature has given us, not to exterminate animals and birds, notdestroy plants. Then our descendants will be able to see them not only in pictures, but also in nature. We live on a beautiful planet from which the tarpan horse, moa and dodo birds, the Tasmanian wolf, the Belgian tiger and many other species have already disappeared. Without them, our world has become poorer.
