Although there is no direct evidence to show that the Mongols were completely lax in their defense of the Takhi from European greed, it is fairly clear that their own herds drove the Wild Horses away. According to CSU professor Holmes Rolston III, “Mongolians have traditionally depended on the five ‘snouts’ or ‘muzzles’ that include horses, camels, sheep, cattle or yaks, and goats.” Competition for grazing territory is another cited factor that might have driven the Przewalski’s horse into the desert where they couldn’t find enough food to sustain themselves. On the other hand, their own interests might have blinded them to the plight of the Takhi. This may suggest that they gave up and left the wild horses to fend for themselves. According to the American Museum of National History (AMNH), the nomads entertained the idea of breeding the Takhi with their own stock to gain its speed, but they could never catch it. It seems that the Mongol people made no attempt at conservation on the behalf of their spirit horses. In short, the Europeans caused death and disruption for the wild horses.įor their part, the Mongol people added to the Takhi’s struggles through their inaction and inability to share. 53 foals made it back to the Western World alive. Eventually, the hunters decided to focus on catching the foals even if they had to kill the adult horses in order to do it. A couple of expeditions proved fruitless. The Europeans shot the Takhi for science and captured it for Western entertainment. In the following years, scientists and merchants set out in search of the Przewalski’s horse as it was called in western circles. Petersburg catalogued his findings as a wild horse and named it Equs Ferus Przewalski after the Colonel. Around 1881, he returned from an expedition in Asia with the skull and hide of a Takhi. Although earlier accounts mentioned the wild horses of Asia, Colonel Nikolai Mikailovich Przewalski was the first to truly draw the Western World’s attention toward the Takhi. It is difficult to say exactly how the Takhi population fared up until the 19 th century, but after that, the Europeans came and took their toll. Yet, the Mongol people who admired the wild horses to the point of giving them spiritual significance did not honor them with any active commitment to their well-being. They acted predictably according to those considerations. The Westerners were concerned with the Takhi as an unknown exotic species and a possible monetary gain.
Those factors fall into two categories: what the Europeans did and what the Mongolian people didn’t do. Many factors contributed to the disappearance of the Takhi from its native Steppe. The Takhi hoofbeats on the Steppe faded to silence. Sadly, others looked on the beautiful Takhi with greed instead of respect.
But over time, the people of the Steppe turned away from the ghostly horses of the wind and left them to their freedom. The people rightly called it and its offspring the “spirit horse,” or Takhi. Only the young, inexperienced foals could even be captured. Like a mirage, the wild horses of the Steppe appeared one moment, only to fade once more into the Steppe in the next instant. Its coat was tan like the bleak grasslands in the summers and pale like the snows in the winter. But another horse also roamed the plains, the one that scoffed at the catch rope and danced out of its reach. The Mongolian horse has faithfully served the nomads of the Steppe for centuries, and the nomads in turn have blessed it with safe pasture. For the people, they represent joy and life. While other places breathe to the rush of the sea tides, landlocked Mongolia keeps time to the vigorous tempo of its little horses. The sound of small hooves pounding against the turf has sustained this land like a pulsing heart. Like a sage elder, its face has seen much of life, death, and rebirth. The land may seem desolate, but for some, it is the safest sanctuary available. A lone hawk calls in the distances as it sweeps and dips over the sloping grasslands of the arid Mongolian Steppe. Meager grasses blow in the breeze like strange fingers trying to catch hold of the sun. The sky stretches forever in every direction and a biting wind adds to the feeling of loneliness.
0 kommentar(er)
