The San Diego Zoo Safari Park is celebrating the birth of two Przewalski’s horse fillies, the first arrivals of this endangered species at the park since 2023.
The foals, both female, were born weeks apart this fall, according to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. The first was born on September 30 to mother Nikki and father Ziggy, followed by a second on October 24 to mother Gal and the same sire.
The births are part of the park’s participation in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Przewalski’s Horse Species Survival Plan. With these additions, the Safari Park has welcomed 49 foals since joining the program.
Wildlife Alliance staff say Przewalski’s horse mothers typically stay close to their newborns — nursing, grooming and keeping the rest of the herd at a distance in the first days after birth. The herd will approach the young fillies only when Nikki and Gal allow it.
Also at the Safari Park are Kurt and Ollie, the world’s first cloned Przewalski’s horses. The species was declared extinct in the wild in the 1980s but has since been reintroduced through international breeding and recovery efforts.
