(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-08-22 15:54

URUMQI - Six captive-bred Przewalski's horses, an endangered species, have been released into a nature reserve in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The six horses, one male and five females, were released onto the plains of Kamusite, part of the Kelameili Nature Reserve, from the Xinjiang Wild Horse Breeding and Research Center.

The male horse was given to the center by a German zoo in 2005 while the five females were born and bred in the center.

The center released a total of 45 horses in two batches in 2001 and 2004 to the nature reserve.

There are only about 2,500 Przewalski's horses in the world. The horses living in the wild in Xinjiang became extinct in the 1960-70s.

The Xinjiang wild horse center opened in 1986 with the import of 18 horses from the United States, Britain and Germany.

The center keeps 290 horses, most of them in captivity. It started to release the horses into a semi-wild environment in 2001.