Tarpan (Equus ferus ferus, also known as Eurasian wild horse) is an extinct subspecies of wild horse. The last individual of this subspecies died in captivity in Russia in 1909.
Beginning in the 1930s, several attempts have been made to re-create the tarpan through selective breeding (see breeding back). The breeds that resulted included the Heck horse, the Hegardt or Stroebel's horse, and a derivation of the Konik breed, all of which resembled t...
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Tarpan (Equus ferus ferus, also known as Eurasian wild horse) is an extinct subspecies of wild horse. The last individual of this subspecies died in captivity in Russia in 1909.
Beginning in the 1930s, several attempts have been made to re-create the tarpan through selective breeding (see breeding back). The breeds that resulted included the Heck horse, the Hegardt or Stroebel's horse, and a derivation of the Konik breed, all of which resembled the original tarpan, particularly in having the grullo coat color of the tarpan.
The name "tarpan" or "tarpani" is from a Turkic language (Kyrgyz or Kazakh) name meaning "wild horse". The Tatars and Cossacks distinguished the wild horse from the feral horse; the latter was called Takja or Muzin.
The tarpan was first described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1774; he had seen the animals in 1769 in the region of Bobrovsk, near Voronezh. In 1784 Pieter Boddaert named the species Equus ferus, referring to Gmelin's description. Unaware of Boddaert's...
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