Marat, a Przewalski’s horse foal, nurses from his adoptive mother Alice, a Pony of the Americas, at the Minnesota Zoo on June 26, 2025 in Apple Valley, Minn.
By MARK VANCLEAVE and STEVE KARNOWSKI – Associated Press
APPLE VALLEY, Minn. (AP) — An endangered wild Asian horse foal is thriving thanks to an unlikely hero.
Marat, a Przewalski’s horse, fell critically ill soon after his birth at the Minnesota Zoo nearly two months ago. He survived thanks to intensive care. But his mother rejected him when he returned.
His future looked grim until Alice, a domestic Pony of the Americas who’d recently lost her newborn, accepted him as her own. Veterinarians say this is one of the first times this kind of surrogacy has been tried with Asian wild horses, and his caregivers couldn’t be happier.
Zoo staffers picked the name Marat because it means “one who is brave,” and he’s had to be brave from such a young age
Przewalski’s are considered the only remaining truly wild horse species. They were declared extinct in the wild in the 1960s, with just a few surviving in zoos. But they’ve since been reestablished on the steppes of Mongolia and China, with some in Russia and Ukraine. Since fewer than 2,000 exist today, each foal is critical to the species’ survival.
People are also reading… Downtown La Crosse cocktail lounge closes Tornado confirmed near Barre Mills with Wednesday thunderstorm La Crosse woman accused of drunken driving incident Cops led fatal chase over car’s paper tag. Body cam raises questions about why. Oriental Goodies Filipino Restaurant opens in La Crosse – Steve Cahalan La Crosse man charged for assaulting downtown bartender in April La Crosse police catch suspect in $86K elderly scam Rise & Shine Balloon Rally returns to Vernon County Fairgrounds La Crosse man faces charges for Oktoberfest burglary Motorcyclist dies from injuries suffered in crash in front of Hillsboro hospital Storms to return this weekend following week’s storms, flooding and tornadoes Women’s sober housing along the Mississippi has a bright future following troubled past La Crosse man released on bond for downtown shooting Suspect in cocaine trafficking freed on bond in La Crosse County 200 new apartment units planned as part of Bridgeview Plaza overhaul
“Being one of the true wild horses left in the world, behaviorally, they are a little bit different,” said Dr. Randy Kochevar, the zoo’s chief animal care officer. They’ve never been truly domesticated, and they’re shorter and stockier than familiar breeds, he said.
Marat was born with some limb problems that made it hard for him to stand up straight, said Dr. Annie Rivas, the zoo’s director of animal health.
“And because he was struggling to keep up with Mom in the herd, he was spending a lot of time lying down on the ground and unfortunately developed bacterial sepsis. So he was very, very sick,” Rivas said.
The University of Minnesota’s equine intensive care unit nursed him back from his pneumonia and wounds. But it wasn’t unusual that his first-time mom, Nady, would refuse to take him back.
“That left us with, ‘What are we going to do with this foal?'” Rivas said. “We could hand-rear him, but we’re not going to be the ones who are the best at teaching them how to be a horse — especially a wild horse.”
Fortunately, they found Alice, a gentle mare who was still grieving her own foal but immediately started nurturing Marat and allowing him to nurse.
“It was really kind of a perfect fairy-tale ending. … They just bonded like that,” Rivas said.
Integrating Marat into the complex social hierarchies of a wild herd will be the next challenge, she said, but Alice is helping Marat learn how to behave with other horses. They’ll probably stay together for a few more months. They want him to join the zoo’s adult Przewalski’s herd before he’s too old.
“He is definitely a wild horse,” Rivas said. “One, he is a stallion, so he’s already got a big personality from that. But he is also a little more wild than you would expect a domestic horse foal to be at this point in his life. And he is trying to show me that he’s the boss, he’s in charge, he’s dominant. So he’s trying to step up, kick, assert his dominance over me.”
Karnowski reported from Minneapolis.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Be the first to know
Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Read more on La Crosse Tribune
