The Przewalski's horse was last observed in the wild in 1969. The survival of this species through captive propagation programs in zoological parks around the world has been well documented, and the management of Przewalski's horses in North America has been used as a model for the development of Species Survival Plan (SSP) programs. This book represents a collection of works from 13 contributors who have devoted a considerable amount of their professional lives to the conservation of this species. The 14 chapters, excluding the introduction and conclusion, can be grouped into five sections: history and taxonomy, genetic management and population biology, captive management, behavior, and reintroduction. All the chapters are well written and several contain summaries at their conclusion. They do vary somewhat in form, largely as a result of the diverse topics that are presented.
Following a brief introductory chapter by the editors, the book begins with a discussion of the history and taxonomic status of the Przewalski's horse. The chapter on history details what is known of the distribution of this species over time and the problems it faced in the wild. The role that zoos played in insuring its survival is covered in detail. There is also limited information on the biology and social behavior of Przewalski's horses in nature. The chapter on taxonomy reviews the morphology of Przewalski's horses and discusses where this species fits taxonomically in relation to other equids.
There are three chapters addressing genetic management and population biology issues. The first covers the development of the Przewalski's horse studbook. The information contained in this chapter will be most useful to students or people new to the zoo field; unfortunately, there is little here that will be of value to zoo biologists who are already familiar with reading and interpreting studbooks. The topics of genetic management and population biology are extremely informative and presented in a straightforward, easy-to-understand manner. My one regret is that there was no discussion of the somewhat controversial issue of managing the Przewalski's horse population as one, rather than two (Prague and Munich lines), herds. This is regrettable because the authors of these chapters have insights and information not readily available to most zoo managers, and their thoughts would have been pro-