Wild Horses

You may have noticed in a previous entry Animal count the addition of "the wild horses of Aus".  It sounds a bit like the title of a novel suitable for the average twelve year old horse-mad girl.  But it is even better. 

The small settlement of Aus was a prison camp about 100 years ago for German soldiers caught by the South African military during the war.  Germany lost that war and all its African territories.  But left behind were itsimperial army's cavalry's horses.  At least that's the most popular theory for why there are high-born horses running wild in the desert.  Whether decendants from shipwrecks travelling between Europe and Ausralia or from Baron Captain Hans Heinrich von Wolf's private stud stock, these eqines are without doubt from illustrious heritage.  Despite being a little shaggy around the main, they are beautiful thoroughbreds. 

Slightly smaller than the average race horse, they are lean and muscular. Given that they must cover considerable distances between few water and food sources, they can go for several days without water.  Given that these changes in their species have developed in less than 100 years, they are of particular interest to evolutionary scientists studying changes occuring due to climate change. They have been identified as a uniquely pure genetic population, which is probably due to having emerged from a relatively small number of original horses, no cross-breeding and no real predators to worry about. Our guide said he had never laid eyes on them before, and we saw them twice, so I feel lucky.  Maybe next sighting will be a leopard!