BONGO
Bongoes are endangerd.
ONAGER
TAKHI, or Pzrewalski's Horse
Takhi in Dubbo
The Takhi are an ancient branch of the horse family and are unusual in that they have 2 small toes just behind the main hoof of each foot. They are native to Mongolia and used to be found across all Europe. Ice age artists painted them onto the walls of caves, along with wooly rhinos, kine and mammoths. Eventually the takhi's range contracted to the steppes around the Gobi Desert. Ghengis Khan and his boys rode them into battle, and they made up the major part of the economy until the larger horses of the West made their way into the area. Their numbers dwindled. In the late 1800s Captain Przewalski "discovered" them and so they came to be named Przewalski's horse, despite the fact they had a perfectly good Mongolian name already. By the 1950s they horse was extinct in the wild. Dubbo Zoo obtained their little mob of takhi (7 mares and a stallion) in the early 80s and joined the world-wide effort to preserve the animal. In 1995 they worked with the Munich Zoo to send 12 mares (6 from Dubbo, 6 from Munich) and 2 stallions back to Mongolia.
People drove for days to watch the release. A lot of old Mongolians cried. "I never thought I'd see them again! I thought my Grandson would never see them" one old-timer is reported as saying. He'd driven for 7 days to see the horses.
"To stand in the dust of a galloping takhi is to bring good luck." Old Mongilian saying.
The trouble with a lot of endangered animals is that they don't look unusual or cute or even special..