Kulan, welcome to the neighborhood!

The seven Przewalski’s horses that took up residence at the Altyn Dala State Nature Reserve in June are no longer the newcomers, thanks to the recent arrival of Asiatic wild asses, or kulan. Wild asses are also sometimes called onagers (so many names!). In early October, 24 kulan were relocated from the eastern part of the country to Altyn Dala’s Alibi Reintroduction Center and placed in a large enclosure adjacent to that of the horses. Like their neighbors, the kulan will remain at Alibi for about one year to acclimatize to steppe conditions before being released into the wild.

The kulan—14 mares and ten foals—traveled 1,362 miles (2,193 km) from Altyn Emel National Park to their new home. Returning the kulan to their natural habitats, alongside ongoing programs to reestablish saiga and Przewalski’s horse populations there, allows conservationists to restore the earlier herbivore assemblage of the central steppe, one of the few remaining untouched landscapes in Kazakhstan. From a broader perspective, restoration of these flagship species improves the likelihood of increased steppe functionality and overall conservation of the ecosystem.

Previous efforts to bring kulan to central Kazakhstan used helicopter transport, rapid transportation, but a strategy that did not allow for the movement of large groups of animals. Preparations for the long-haul ground transport, which involved addressing logistical and organizational challenges associated with the distance and time (50 hours), among other considerations, took almost a full year.

The relocation of the kulan was accomplished within the framework of the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, a large-scale conservation partnership in central Kazakhstan comprising national and international NGOs. Assistance in ensuring safe transit of the equines was provided by the South African wildlife transportation company Conservation Solutions and Germany’s Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. The transport containers were designed so that the equines could eat and drink while enroute. As an extra safety measure, the containers were outfitted with video cameras to monitor their health and behavior during the long journey.

Concurrently with the Altyn Dala relocation, 43 kulan were transported to the Ile-Balkhash Nature Reserve to increase the number of ungulates in that region as well.