In March of this year (2019), Tama Zoo moved two male Przewalski's Horse 's horses, "Melos" and "Naru" (both 2 years old), to the old Przewalski's Horse 's horse enclosure. They are now next to Grevy's Zebra who are temporarily relocated due to construction work.

Melos and Nar lived among a herd of Przewalski's Horse 's horses in the "Plains of Asia." However, since a typical herd can only have one adult male, the two horses, having reached sexual maturity at the age of two, had to be moved to a different location.

The former Przewalski's Horse enclosure now houses a group of adult males known as the "Bachelor Group." Previously, there were only two males, "Hahn" (7 years old) and "Lucas" (3 years old), but with this move, the group has grown to four males.

On the day of the move, when Melos and Nar arrived at the old Przewalski's Horse 's horse enclosure, unlike when Lucas moved last year, the senior horse, Hahn, didn't make as much of a fuss as we had expected, which surprised us. However, since Hahn had never met the two newcomers, we proceeded with the cohabitation process as cautiously as possible.


The horses split into three groups, with Khan facing the other three, and no fight ensued (Khan is on the far left in all the photos).
Meanwhile, Lucas had previously been in the same herd as Melos and Nar in the "Plains of Asia," so they seemed to remember each other, and the cohabitation of the three other than Khan went smoothly. When it came time to house Khan with them, there was tension about whether a fierce fight would break out, but perhaps due to Khan's overwhelming strength, it became Khan against the three, splitting the group in two, and no fighting occurred at all. At first, Khan showed his strength to the other three with hind kicks and such, but since there was no resistance from them, the distance between the four gradually narrowed.


Lucas (front right) and Naru (back right) are shown snapping. Snapping is a behavior where the offspring snaps at the adult.
The behavior they exhibit in response: The two animals are trying to show that they are juveniles and avoid being attacked.
When Lucas arrived, he seemed intimidated by Khan. He paced around the room, kicking away the food and refusing to eat, and repeatedly peeking at Khan through the door and greeting him.

However, this time, even when Khan kicked the door from behind, Melos and Nar only gave a slight greeting and continued eating their food without wandering around the room. In Przewalski's Horse 's horse enclosure in "Asian Plains," the two were very attached to their mother and seemed easily frightened, so we were worried about this move. But contrary to our worries, Melos and Nar were very calm. Since they moved together, they seemed to be able to rely on each other. Melos and Nar may have more resilient personalities than we thought.

Przewalski's Horse 's horse bachelor group has grown with these two newcomers, Melos and Naru. Please come and see them at Tama Zoo.

Related article: "Przewalski's Horse becomes the first 'Bachelor Group' horse" July 13, 2018

[Noriko Shimoshige and Katsuki Nishito, Tama Zoo, Tama Zoological Park]

(July 5, 2019)