The Last Mustang on Earth

Road test: 2018 Ford Mustang

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So where does this convertible fit in? Being a , it would have been for a private customer, not part of the Ford partnership, and appears to be the only droptop converted to AWD. It's hard to know for sure without an official build count or seeing it in person, but it would be pretty hard to fake one of these. With all that in mind, its frankly terrible condition after spending decades in a Dutch barn is all the more heartbreaking. The high-riding front end plus a poor internet translation of the listing seem to indicate both the engine and front drive unit are missing, and tracking down those parts or a wrecked Jensen FF to source from would be a tall order.

15. 1971 Ford Mustang Boss 351

Then there's the omimous "Ask" price. We know what that usually means By Kyle Cheromcha May 8, While unpacking the garage of a former GM associate, one forum member finds a piece of history. I'm sure the seller is pretty happy with the result. View image of The noted explorer Nikolai Przewalski, some time before Credit: When the Russian explorer Nikolai Przewalski visited China at the end of the 19th century, he was presented with the skull and hide of a horse shot on the Chinese-Russian border.

A zoological examination determined that the remains were of a wild horse, and Przewalski's horse received its official name.

However, Mongolians had always named the horses "takhi", which means "spirit" or "spiritual". They regarded Przewalski's horses as man's messengers to the gods. The horses are short and muscular. They are smaller than most domesticated horses, reaching about 13 hands high at the shoulder, or a little more than 4ft 1. Their coat ranges from brown to dun, with a pale underbelly and muzzle. A dark dorsal stripe runs from the mane, down the spine, to a black-ish tail.

Unlike domestic horses, their mane is short and stands upward, like a mohawk. View image of Mustangs Credit: It is unclear if they should be described as a separate species, distinct from domestic horses.

Ford Mustang Is the Best-Selling Sports Coupe on the Planet, Again

But certainly the two are not completely alike. In October , Ludovic Orlando of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and his colleagues published a study showing that Przewalski's and domesticated horses have significant differences in genes that govern metabolism, muscle contraction, reproduction and behaviour. Orlando's team sequenced the genomes of 11 living Przewalski's horses, representing all of the founding lineages, and five historical specimens dating from to They also obtained a tooth from the skull given to Przewalski.

Although the Przewalski's horse genomes differed from those of domesticated horses, the two groups only diverged 45, years ago. If Przewalski's horses do represent a true species, they are a young one. But for many decades it seemed that their story was going to be a short one.

The world's last truly wild horse is making a comeback

View image of The vast open spaces of Mongolia Credit: In the late 18th century, herds of Przewalski's horses ranged from the Russian Steppes east to Kazakhstan, Mongolia and northern China. But their numbers declined rapidly over the next few decades, due to a combination of hunting, harsh winters and increasing land use by humans. Elderly herders have reported seeing the horses later. The only remaining Przewalski's horses lived in zoos.

Ford has sold 418,000 Mustangs in 146 countries around the world since exports began in 2015.

In there were just But an ambitious breeding program brought those numbers up to around 1, by the early s. With the survival of the species assured, scientists turned their attention toward returning them to freedom. In , they tried two reintroductions: More recently, the horses have been reintroduced to other regions of Mongolia as well as Kazakhstan, Russia, Hungary and China. View image of A cave painting from Lascaux, France Credit: Feh was among the scientists convinced that Przewalski's horses could return to the wild. As a teenager, she was inspired by seeing 17,year-old paintings along the walls of the Lascaux Caves in south-west France, in which Przewalski's horse look-a-likes prance and bound amid a throng of cattle, bison, stags and bears.

Struck by the freedom and abundance of ancient European wildlife, Feh began studying semi-wild horses. In she established TAKH, an organization dedicated to returning Przewalski's horses to the wild and allowing them to flourish independently. Having studied the horses' behaviour, Feh believed that their ability to form cohesive family groups that stayed together would be critical to their survival.

As expected, the horses formed small family groups.

14. 1993 SVT Mustang Cobra R

In , she settled on the remote region of Khomiin Tal, a 2, sq km tract of land in western Mongolia. It's a place to be wild. In preparation for the horses' arrival, TAKH built a fence around a sq km release site to allow the vegetation to grow. They also negotiated with local herders, to ensure they would keep their domestic horses out of the reintroduction site.

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