The birth of a Persian onager at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va., Wednesday, Sept. 7, is a boon for a vital program that seeks innovative ways to manage endangered species that live in herds. The foal is now one of 26 onagers in captivity in North America. The last time SCBI-Front Royal bred onagers and produced a foal was in 1995.
Because there are so few onagers under human care, SCBI is collaborating with fellow C2S2 partner, the Wilds, a 10,000-acre conservation center in Ohio, to establish a healthy population to hedge against extinction.