25th Anniversary of the Pentezug Reserve - Conference 4-5 August 2022

25 years ago, in 1997, the first Przewalski’s horses have arrived to Pentezug Reserve, with the help of the Cologne Zoo. That time the introduction of horses served two purposes.

On the one hand, it was important for the Hortobagy National Park (HNP) to establish a protected area, a so called „A” zone, where human intervention is minimal. To maintain the grassland and reach the goal above, two large grazer species (Przewalski’s horse and reconstructed aurochs) were introduced to the area. The ancestors of these species were part of the ecosystem before the humans and they are still able to survive on the Puszta.

On the other hand, at the time of the foundation of the reserve, there were only a few places where Przewalski horses could live close to their natural environment. They were only discovered in 1881 and died out in the wild 60 years after. By that time quite a few horses lived in captivity and due to careful transports between zoos reintroductions could started (China in 1985 and Mongolia in 1992). Pentezug Reserve seemed to be an ideal place to keep a large group that could serve as a safety gene pool for the species.

During the 25 years, we had the opportunity to have a special insight into the life of this endangered species. Moreover, it allowed us to develop connections with other equid specialists and institutions around the world with common aims and problems to address. This inspired us to undertake various conservation-related initiatives over time. Most recently, we have established biodiversity consortium, consisting of various university partners in Europe and the USA. Our collective aim, as a consortium, is to develop technology, especially using AI and data-driven methods, to solve biodiversity conservation-related challenges, such as cataloging of species including detection, identification, tracking, etc.

In our conference you can listen the presentation of invited speakers of the above mentioned fields and can have an insight of the current conservation situtation of the large ungulates with a special attention to the Przewalski horse.

Everyone interested in horses and/ or science are welcome on the conference.

The conference will be in English.

The conference will be online as well.

Registration fee (in person): 100 Euro , Registration fee (online attendance): free of charge.
There is no registration fee in the case of online attendance. If you want to attend online it is still worth to register on the webapge, because we will send useful infos of the conference or any changes in the program. It will be possible to ask questions in written form after the presentations for those who take part online. These questions will be answered by the speaker if there is enough time or answered in written from later on. 

Supported by: Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Humanbiology of Debrecen Universtiy and Cologne Zoo.

Contact: Viola Kerekes / Phone: +36 30 82 75 870 / E-mail: kerekesviola@hnp.hu