Namibian wild horse
| Namibian wild horse | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Important data | |
| Origin: | Europe / Namibia |
| Main breeding area: | Namibia |
| Distribution: | southern Namib around Garub ( Aus ) |
| Stick measure : | |
| Colors : | predominantly brown |
| Main application area: | |
The Namibian wild horses (also known as Namib horses for short ) or simply desert horses or, rarely, Namibs are feral domestic horses that live on the edge of the Namib in the southwest of Namibia . They can be observed at Garub about 20 km west of Aus . Since 2017, after five years of drought, they have been considered critically endangered.
origin
The origin of the wild horses has been puzzled over for decades. Some referred to the domestic horses of the German Schutztruppe in what was then the German colony of German South West Africa , which were lost during the First World War around 1915 when the South African armed forces withdrew; Others thought they were descendants of released animals from the Duwisib horse breeding of the former Schutztruppe officer Hansheinrich von Wolf (about 250 km northeast), who mated with runaway South African troop horses during the turmoil of the First World War.
Another view, some of which is still held, about their origins is that towards the end of the 19th century a German baron was supposed to bring house horses to what is now Namibia, and that they ran away from his ship, which was stranded about 25 km south of the mouth of the Oranje. Trakehner , warm-blooded animals with a particularly high percentage of whole blood at the beginning of the 20th century , were also bred as military and carriage horses.
According to the official view of the Ministry of the Environment (September 2019), the horses come from the Kubub horse farm southeast of Aus, which was owned by Emil Kreplin . In the turmoil of the First World War, the horses are said to have pulled themselves 30 kilometers to Garub in search of water and food.
description
According to research by Mannfred Goldbeck and Walter Rusch, which found reports and photos, it can be assumed that it is an outcrossing of two studs. Accordingly, Emil Kreplin also bred work horses or race horses in Kubub 30 km south of Aus , which, even more like those of the breeding in Duwisib, have similarities with the wild horses. Furthermore, during the First World War, a German pilot dropped a bomb over the camp of the South African army near Garub , which allowed around 1,700 domestic horses to escape. It can be assumed that during the chaos of war in the area around Aus, German and South African domestic horses were lost and mixed.
One thing is certain, however: Originally there were no domestic horses in southern Africa; they were imported by the Europeans with the settlement. Therefore, the wild horses of the Namib are not real wild horses , but feral domestic horses.
At Garub there was a borehole to supply the steam locomotives on the nearby Lüderitz – Seeheim railway line with water. Water always fell off so that the horses had enough to drink. As early as the 1920s, there were reports of stray animals at Garub. According to studies by the South African biologist Telané Greyling, the behavior of the horses has adapted to the dry and hot conditions of the area on the eastern edge of the Namib. For example, they delay the exhausting walk between the watering area and the pasture as far as possible.
The population was able to develop because diamonds were found at Kolmannskuppe in 1908 and the German colonial administration established two huge restricted areas . Since nobody had access to the restricted area, the animals remained undisturbed for almost 80 years. For decades, they were only seen by South African aircraft flying over the area . In 1986 the mining company handed the area over to nature conservation .
A gravel road branches off from the B4 national road from Aus to Lüderitz about 20 kilometers west of Aus. It leads to the drinking trough at Garub , 2 kilometers to the north , to which the horses regularly come to drink. The animals can often be observed from a wooden shelter. In the Aus Info Center - at the entrance to Aus, opened in July 2006 - display boards provide information about the origin, adaptation, social structure and future of the wild horses.
Duration
The population was 286 animals in 2013. By August 2017 it had decreased to 115 animals (41 mares, 74 stallions), which was mainly due to the drought and the increase in hyenas between 2012 and the end of 2017. In January 2018 there were still 84 horses. The population in September 2018 was given as 79 adult animals and one foal. In November 2018, there were only 33 mares left. Three of the four foals born were killed by hyenas.
In March 2017, the extinction of the animals was predicted by August of that year. The Ministry of Environment and the Namibia Wild Horses Foundation of the Gondwana Collection had agreed to relocate the animals. At the end of 2018, the resettlement of hyenas instead of horses was announced, which was not yet successful until February 2019: as of February 2019 there were 79 horses.
For the first time in years, the population had increased significantly to 86 animals by the beginning of February 2020. Among them are 15 foals.
Literature and films
- Mannfred Goldbeck and Telané Greyling: Wild Horses in the Namib Desert - A Horse Biography. Friends of the Wild Horses, Namibia 2011, ISBN 978-99945-72-53-3 ( details on the book ).
- Sandra Uttridge and Gary Cowan: The wild horses of Namibia. Clifton Publications, Cape Town 2006, ISBN 0620352167 .
- Documentation: Africa's Wild West. ORF / ARTE, France 2014 ( [1] )
See also
Web links
- Wils Horses Management Plan 2020–2029 of the Ministry of the Environment (English; PDF 12.1 MB)
- Namibia Wild Horses Foundation (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ 100 years of wild horses. Namibia tourism, supplement to Allgemeine Zeitung, Republikein and Namibian Sun, November 2015, p. 6.
- ↑ a b THE WILD HORSES OF THE NAMIB ARE THREATENED BY EXTINCTION, THERE IS URGENT NEED FOR ACTION !. Namibia Wild Horses Foundation, November 19, 2018.
- ↑ A fairy tale without a happy ending - Duwisib Castle near Maltahöhe. March 4, 2010, accessed September 12, 2014 .
- ↑ a b The Wild Horses of Garub. Retrieved May 5, 2018 .
- ↑ Management Plan for Horses in the Namib Naukluft Park and the Tsau // Khaeb (Sperrgebiet) National Park 2020-2029. Ministry of Environment & Tourism, September 12, 2019, p. 13.
- ↑ Namibia: The dancing horses of Garub. (No longer available online.) In: Focus Online . October 14, 2018, archived from the original on August 14, 2012 ; Retrieved September 25, 2008 .
- ↑ Keep your fingers crossed for a wild horse foal. Namibia Wild Horses Foundation, September 14, 2018.
- ↑ March 23, 2017 - Morning News. Hitradio Namibia, March 23, 2017.
- ↑ The wild horses of the Namib are threatened with extinction. Namibia Wild Horses Foundation, February 5, 2019.
- ↑ Wild horse population grows. The Namibian, February 5, 2020.