Talk:Konik

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There seems to be contradictory information on the origin of the Konik. The article tarpan has this to say:

"Polish farmers often crossed the tarpan with their domestic horses. The result was a small horse breed, the Konik. Such animals, as the Konik, and also the Sorraia Horse preserved in Portugal, are now being used to breed back the Tarpan, and to fill in the niche that was left vacant by their extinction in the wild."

(Essentially, that the konik was created by crossbreeding the tarpan, a now-extinct wild horse, with existing horses.)

And the article horse says this...

"The tarpan, Equus ferus ferus, became extinct in 1880. Its genetic line is lost, but its phenotype has been recreated by a "breeding back" process, in which living domesticated horses with primitive features were repeatedly interbred. Thanks to the efforts of the brothers Lutz Heck (director of the Berlin zoo) and Heinz Heck (director of Munich Tierpark Hellabrunn), the resulting Wild Polish Horse or Konik more closely resembles the tarpan than any other living horse."

(Basically, that the konik was bred after the tarpan was extinct, in an attempt to recreate the tarpan.)

If someone with knowledge of this matter could correct whichever article is wrong, and add that information to the article on Konik (and provide a verifiable source for the information, of course), that would be appreciated.

StoneRaven 19:35, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

The horse page is! The brothers Heck did not create the Konik, but the Heck horse. The Koniks of today are the result of the breeding program of professor Tadeasz Vetulai of Poznan University. [1] Peter Maas 19:33, 16 November 2006 (UTC)