Hobbies And Interests
The Russian Steppe
A wild horse called the "tarpan," which went extinct during the 18th century, was native to the Russian steppes, though for a time before its extinction is was present in much of Europe. The species was grey, small and timid. The steppe ecosystem is semi-arid -- it lies close to mountains as opposed to oceans -- and gets from 10 to 30 inches of rain each year. It has warm summers and bitterly cold winters. It is a vast area of grassland, and the only trees lie on the banks of the rivers and streams. The small animals, such as rodents, and grazing animals, such as horses, that live in the steppe, trim back the vegetation -- which largely consists of grasses -- and transport seeds in their manure and during feeding. Fires also periodically sweep through the steppes to clear areas of old, dried-out vegetation and give space for new vegetation to grow.
Shrubland and Plains of Eurasia
A wild horse called Przewalski's horse is native to the temperate regions of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, including areas in the present day countries of China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland and Germany. Przewalski's horse, a short, muscular and large-headed breed, has never been domesticated. Though it went extinct in its native habitat for a time in the mid- to late 20th century, it has since been reintroduced to its native ecosystem. The semi-arid Eurasian plains and scrubland ecosystem is similar -- and possibly could be defined to include -- the Russian steppe. It's a large grassland with thin soil and temperature extremes and is populated by small animals and grazing animals. However, the Eurasian plains can be extended to include deserts, such as in Mongolia, and deciduous forests, such as in Germany.
Prairie of the United States
Herds of feral horses roam the Great Plains of the United States, a huge area of prairie that once reached from the Rocky Mountains in the West to the Mississippi River in the East. Like the steppe, the prairie is semi-arid, and thus is wet enough to support some vegetation -- such as grasses. However, it is too dry to support vegetation that requires a greater amount of nutrients, such as forest. Small animals, such as birds, and grazers, such as bison, horses and elk, live on the grasses. Larger predators, such as wolves and bears, prey on the herbivores. Fires periodically sweep through the prairie, clearing space for new vegetation to grow. Though the summers are warm, the winds are harsh without trees and mountains to act as windbreaks, and the winters are harsh.
Wetlands of the United States' East Coast
Herds of feral horses live in protected areas of the Eastern U.S., including the wetlands of Chincoteague, an island on the border between Virginia and Maryland. The horses are believed to be the descendants of domesticated horses that were let into the wilderness when the ship they were being transported on, from Europe to the early settlers of the American mid-Atlantic, crashed on an Atlantic sandbar. Chincoteague Island is on the Chincoteague Bay, an estuary that leads eventually to the saltwater of the Atlantic. In the island's ecosystem, the horses live on the marsh grass, and drink freshwater from the upstream creeks and rivers. The island's creeks and rivers quickly fill with groundwater and rainwater, since the sandy soil and flat geography of islands on a bay can't absorb much water. The sandy soil is only fertile enough to support vegetation that needs relatively low levels of nutrition, such as grasses. Bays are generally microtidal, which means the tide is generally not strong enough to draw water out, and nutrients, contaminates and marine life will stay trapped there -- which results in a variety of life in the bay that is representative of the variety of life in the nearby ocean, but is more abundant. In such an ecosystem, life on land is limited to small and grazing animals that can live on the marsh grasses and animals that feed on the marine life in the bay.