- An endangered Przewalski’s horse foal named Marat, critically ill and rejected by his biological mother, found a surrogate parent in Alice, a domestic Pony of the Americas, at the Minnesota Zoo.
- Marat, born with limb problems, developed severe infections and was rejected by his first-time mother, prompting the zoo to seek an alternative to hand-rearing.
- The unique interspecies adoption occurred after Alice, who had recently lost her own newborn, bonded immediately with Marat, providing him with essential maternal care.
- This rare surrogacy is crucial for the Przewalski’s horse species, the only truly wild horse remaining, which was once extinct in the wild and has fewer than 2,000 individuals globally.
- Marat is now recovering well and learning appropriate horse behavior from Alice, with plans for his eventual integration into the zoo’s adult Przewalski’s herd.
IN FULL