Study solves mystery of horse domestication

New research indicates that domestic horses originated in the steppes of modern-day Ukraine, southwest Russia and west Kazakhstan, mixing with local wild stocks as they spread throughout Europe and Asia. The research was published May 7, 2012, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). For several decades scientists puzzled over the origin…

Chernobyl’s Przewalski’s horses are poached for meat

By Victoria Gill BBC NATURE A herd of Critically Endangered wild Przewalski's horses in the Chernobyl exclusion zone is under threat from poachers, say scientists. Researchers in Ukraine say that the population may be in decline because poachers have been removing the animals faster than they are breeding. Thirty-one horses were taken from a Przewalski's…