Taiwan’s premier zoo aims to grab the spotlight this Lunar New Year with its efforts to protect an endangered species of horse native to central Asia that was once extinct in the wild.

The festival ushering in the Year of the Horse will draw attention to the zoo’s four specimens of Przewalski’s horse, named for a Russian geographer who first encountered them in the late 19th century across a narrowed range in western Mongolia.

“Visitors will look at the horses and think that since this is the Year of the Horse, ‘I want to get to know horses,’” said zookeeper Chen Yun-chieh, who has spent five years looking after the animals.

The Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac begins on February 17, ushered in with celebrations in Taiwan, China, South Korea and many parts of Southeast Asia.

“The happiest thing is that, when I show up, they come right over to me,” added Chen, 34, who has a close bond with the animals and held talks this year to better acquaint zoo visitors with them.

Przewalski’s horse, usually brown in colour, smaller and shorter than its domesticated relative, had disappeared from the wild by the end of the 1960s, but some remained in captivity.

Usually considered too wild to be ridden, they were reintroduced in China, Kazakhstan, and western Mongolia, and now number 850 across the region.

Taipei Zoo has worked with the Czech Republic’s Prague Zoo, which tracks breeding efforts for the species, to aid a global campaign to protect the horse, with moves such as helping to arrange a 2018 release of horses in Mongolia by the Czech zoo.

Chen is experienced in the care of other endangered species, such as white rhinos and giraffes.

Many visitors may mistake the horses, also known as the Mongolian wild horse, for the steeds that carried 13th-century ruler Genghis Khan on his raids of conquest, he said.

“But actually they were not,” added Chen. “So visitors can take this chance to learn that they’re a different species.”