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Tarpan Equus ferus ferus, was the Eurasian wild horse. The last specimen of this species died in captivity in Ukraine in 1918 or 1919.

Polish farmers often crossed the tarpan with their domestic horses. The result was a small horse breed, the Konik. Such animals, as the Konik, and also the Sorraia Horse preserved in Portugal, are now being used to breed back the Tarpan, and to fill in the niche that was left vacant by their extinction in the wild. The Hucul pony living in the Carpathian mountains is arguably the most direct descendant of the Tarpan.

The name Tarpan is from a Turkic language (Kyrgyz or Kazakh) name for the horse.

Taxonomic history

The Tarpan was first described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1774; he had seen the animals in 1769 in the region of Bobrovsk, near Voronezh. In 1784 Pieter Boddaert named the species Equus ferus, referring to Gmelin's description. Unaware of Boddaert's name, Otto Antonius published the name Equus gmelini in 1912, again referring to Gmelin's description. Since Antonius' name refers to the same description as Boddaert's it is a junior objective synonym.

It is now thought that the domesticated horse, named Equus caballus by Linnaeus in 1758, is descended from the Tarpan; indeed, many taxonomists consider them to belong to the same species. By a strict application of the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, the Tarpan ought to be named E. caballus, or if considered a subspecies, E. caballus ferus. However, biologists have generally ignored the letter of the rule and used E. ferus for the Tarpan to avoid confusion with its domesticated cousins.

In 2003, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature "conserved the usage of 17 specific names based on wild species, which are pre-dated by or contemporary with those based on domestic forms", confirming E. ferus for the Tarpan. Taxonomists who consider the domestic horse a subspecies of the wild Tarpan should use Equus ferus caballus; the name Equus caballus remains available for the domestic horse where it is considered to be a separate species.

"Bred back" horses

There have been attempts to recreate the Tarpan by breeding individuals who closely resemble the phenotype of the original animal. Two examples are the Konik horses of the Netherlands and the Heck horse of Germany. While genetically not the same animal as the original Tarpan, their outward appearance and manner is similar.

Back from the brink

The Tarpan may have been officially extinct by 1910, but the tarpan-like characteristics of some horses in their former home range had not escaped attention.

In the lead-up to World War 2, two people in particular took a special interest in the tarpan-like domestic ponies called Bilgoraj Konik, which were used by remote polish peasants.

The peasants where too poor to feed the horses through winter so would let them roam wild and recapture them for agricultural work the next spring.

Two men now tried to "re-breed" the Bilgoraj Konik - one Polish and one German.

The Pole was Tadeusz Vetulani, of Poznan University, who began selecting Koniks for a tarpan re-breeding project in the Bialowieza Forest.

Two of his Koniks, a male and female, had the tendency to turn whitish in winter, always retaining the dark points. The project was successful and another herd was established in the Popielno Forest. Attempts were made to regenerate the European bison, also, at this time.

The other person interested in re-breeding the tarpan was Lutz Heck, the director of Berlin Zoo and an ardent Nazi. He and his brother Heinz, a director of Munich Zoo, both started tarpan re-breeding projects using a variety of horses. The brothers, both interested in German forest and hunting culture, established independent breeding groups. Both claimed success in re-breeding tarpans.

Heck was to rise through the ranks of the Nazis and held an important position in the ministry responsible for nature and forests. When Germany overran Poland during World War 2, polish Koniks were taken back to Germany for a series of genetic experiments aimed at recreating a German Tarpan.

Lutz Heck personally commanded and supervised a Nazi team that stole a number of herds of the small primitive horses from the Bialowieza National Park for their genetic experiments. He developed his re-breeding experiments with the enthusiastic support of senior Nazis, chief amongst whom was the Reichmarshal, Herman Goering.