A UK zoo is celebrating the birth of a healthy onager foal – the world’s rarest equid – with hopes his arrival will “help safeguard this charismatic species”.
This summer Chester Zoo’s onager mare Azita gave birth to Jasper, following a year-long pregnancy.
“Onagers are the most threatened equid species in the world and one of the rarest animals that we care for here at the zoo, so we’re absolutely delighted a new foal has been born – he’ll help to boost global numbers of this little-known species,” said Mike Jordan, Chester Zoo’s animal and plant director.
“The leggy youngster is doing very well and Azita is doing a fantastic job of nurturing and bonding with her new charge. He’s full of energy and enjoys playfully kicking up sand as he races around his habitat.”
Onager mare Azita gave birth to Jasper at Chester Zoo this summer.
The onager is an Asiatic wild ass, which lives in the semi-desert regions of Iran. Similar wild asses were “once found in abundance” across the deserts of Mongolia, China, and Iran, but very few species remain.
Onagers now only survive in two small protected areas of Iran, with only around 600 believed to be left in the wild.
“They have suffered at the hands of illegal poaching, overgrazing, drought and disease passed from farm animals which has resulted in their numbers plummeting by more than 50% in the past two decades alone, leaving just 600 in the wild today,” said a Chester Zoo spokesperson.
“As a result, the species has been listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature – facing a very high chance of extinction.”
Chester Zoo is the only zoo in the UK, and one of very few in the world, that works with onagers owing to the “challenges of breeding and caring for the rare equids”.
“With numbers having declined so rapidly in the wild, and the species now teetering on the edge of existence in Iran, it’s sadly very possible that onagers could become extinct in the wild within our lifetime,” said Mike.
“That’s why we’re part of an international conservation breeding programme, to ensure there’s a viable safety-net population of onager in zoos. In time, Jasper will go on to contribute to these efforts, helping to safeguard this charismatic species and preserve options for their conservation into the future.”
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