Przewalski's Horses, Hustai National Park, Mongolia

Takhi, as Mongolians call them, grazing the green slopes of Hustai National Park west of Ulaanbaatar. Look for the stiff, upright mane, the pale muzzle and the dun coat: this is the wild horse of the steppe, not a runaway from a farm. The species vanished from the wild in the late 1960s and survived only in zoos. Hustai received its first captive-bred horses in 1992 and now holds one of the largest free-ranging herds anywhere. Some scientists argue the species descends from horses herded by the Botai culture in Kazakhstan about 5,500 years ago, and others dispute it. Either way, these are the horses that come closest to truly wild.