The keeper says the Przewalski’s horses are “one of my favourites”.
“They’re very special, so they have some similarity to domestic horses but they’re wild.
“They are these shorter, stockier, chunky little things that are very feisty, very hardy because they have to live in a really harsh environment, occasionally.”
The zoo says the Przewalski’s horses alive today “are descended from just 12 captive individuals after the population in the wild was declared extinct”.
“They’re really interesting to work with because of how they interact socially,” Wolff says.
“You do have to be quite careful when you’re with them. When they kick off at each other, it can be quite scary and I think if people saw it, they’d be quite shocked.”
She says that on 22 January, two of the Marwell’s female horses – Shara and Togs – left the zoo to return to the wild in their native Kazakhstan.
Rhiannon adds they had made it to Berlin, thus completing the first part of their journey.
It is part of Marwell’s ongoing international efforts to save the species from extinction.
“It’s bittersweet but it’s very cool to be part of that as well because I worked with them from when they were born to when they left, so it’s a very special part of the job.”