Tarpan

Tarpan Temporal range: Holocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
The "Cherson tarpan", the only tarpan to be photographed, 1884
Conservation status
Extinct (1909)  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Perissodactyla
Family:	Equidae
Genus:	Equus
Species:	E. ferus
Subspecies:	†E. f. ferus
Trinomial name
†Equus ferus ferus Boddaert, 1785
Synonyms
Equus equiferus Pallas, 1811 Equus gmelini Antonius, 1912 Equus sylvestris Brincken, 1826 Equus silvaticus Vetulani, 1928 Equus tarpan Pidoplichko, 1951

The tarpan (Equus ferus ferus) was a free-ranging horse population of the Eurasian steppe from the 18th to the 20th century.^[1] What qualifies as a tarpan is subject to confusion. It is unknown whether those horses represented genuine wild horses, feral domestic horses or hybrids.^[1][2] The last individual believed to be a tarpan died in captivity in the Russian Empire in 1909.^[3]

Beginning in the 1930s, several attempts were made to develop horses that looked like tarpans through selective breeding, called "breeding back" by advocates. The breeds that resulted included the Heck horse, the Hegardt or Stroebel's horse [fr], and a derivation of the Konik breed, all of which have a primitive appearance, particularly in having the grullo coat colour. Some of these horses are now commercially promoted as "tarpans", although such animals are only domestic breeds and not the wild animal themselves.