...The onager (click here) is an Asiatic wild ass and belongs to the equid family of hoofed animals, once found in abundance across the deserts of Mongolia, China and Iran.
Now, they are found in just two protected areas and over the past 16 years their numbers have declined by more than 50%.
Tim Rowlands, curator of mammals at Chester Zoo, said: “Onagers are the rarest equid species in the world and one of the rarest animals that we have here at the zoo, so we were absolutely delighted to have two foals arrive - one male and one female - during same night.
“Both youngsters are doing very well and mums Jamila and Zarrin are doing a great job of nurturing and bonding with their new charges.
“We hope the foals themselves will one day go on to contribute to the international breeding programme for the species, which is working to ensure there’s a sustainable population in zoos.”
The species is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), after suffering at the hands of illegal poaching, overgrazing and disease passed on from farm animals....
This makes a third onager to join the world.
ČTK
10 July 2015
Ostrava, North Moravia, July 9 (CTK) - A young onager, (click here) an endangered
Asiatic wild ass, has been born in the Ostrava zoo, its spokeswoman
Sarka Novakova told CTK Thursday, adding that the rare offspring is a
female.It is the first young to be born in "Persia," a newly established enclosure with several animal species.
The onager group in it is comprised of a male and four females.
Novakova said the onager is the most endangered of the five Asian ass subspecies. Its wild population is estimated at a mere 500, and the world zoos keep some 80 of them.
Out of the Czech zoos, the onager can be seen in Ostrava only.
The onager's natural habitats are lowlands, deserts and semi-deserts. Originally, it lived in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but it survives only in Iran now, Novakova said.
Outside nature reserves, people often tend to eliminate onagers in order to save the pastures for cattle.
