Cloned Horse Has New Home At San Diego Zoo Safari Park

SAN DEIGO, CA — The world's second successfully cloned Przewalski's horse has a new home at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

The foal, born Feb. 17, 2023, and his surrogate mother, a domestic quarter horse, were recently relocated to the Escondido-based Safari Park from the ViaGen Pets & Equine cloning facility in Texas.

After arriving at his new home, the foal was named "Ollie," in honor of Oliver Ryder, the director of Conservation Genetics at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, a nonprofit conservation organization that operates the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park.

"It is an honor to have studied and worked with so many others on the conservation of this special animal and to see come alive the possibility of using advanced genetic and reproductive technologies to sustain resilient populations in human care and in their native habitat," Ryder said.

Ollie is a clone of a male Przewalski's horse stallion whose living cell line was frozen and preserved more than 40 years ago in the Wildlife Alliance's Biodiversity Bank's Frozen Zoo.

The world's first cloned Przewalski's horse, Kurt, is also at the Safari Park. Kurt and Ollie are genetic twins. Kurt was named after Ryder's mentor, Kurt Benirschke, who died in 2018.

The births of Ollie and Kurt are a result of a partnership among the Wildlife Alliance, animal cloning company ViaGen Pets & Equine, and wildlife conservation organization Revive & Restore.

The Przewalski's horse is an endangered species that was considered extinct in the wild until 1996. The species has survived for the past 40 years almost entirely in zoos around the world, according to the Wildlife Alliance. Przewalski's horses have been reintroduced into their native habitats, resulting in several herds in grasslands in China and Mongolia.

Ollie and his surrogate mother will temporarily live in a secluded, private habitat until he is ready to be introduced to other Przewalski's horses, according to the Wildlife Alliance. Safari Park visitors can see Kurt and his companion, Holly, a young female of his own species, in the park's Central Asia field habitat.