URUMQI, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The Kalamaili reserve in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region covers more than 10,000 square kilometers, with plenty of room for its 267 Przewalski's horses to roam freely, largely avoiding human contact. However, one man is able to keep track of these hardy animals, believed to be the only wild horse species in existence today.

Over the past 16 years, Adabiyat's daily routine has involved driving through the rugged wilderness and tracking down the endangered horses for the purposes of research and protection.

He often parks his white jeep on a high point and observes through a pair of binoculars, a hand-held GPS device at the ready. After spotting the herd, Adabiyat quickly jots down its location, behaviors and condition in his work journal.

"If they're drinking water and taking a rest as usual, which shows that they're healthy, I continue with my patrol," said the 40-year-old ranger at the nature reserve in Xinjiang's Junggar Basin.

Once extinct in China due to excessive poaching and environmental degradation, the Przewalski's horse was reintroduced to the country from Britain, Germany and the United States starting in the mid-1980s, being raised in Xinjiang and Gansu Province.

The species, listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species, is under first-class national protection in China.

A member of the Kazakh ethnic group -- often dubbed "the ethnic group on horseback" -- Adabiyat has developed a special bond with horses since childhood. In 2001, he became a breeder at the Xinjiang Wild Horse Breeding and Research Center, which was set up to save the Przewalski's horse from extinction.

In the same year, the center began releasing the species into the Kalamaili reserve, after several years of preparation for a smooth transition to life in the wild.

Bilingual in Kazakh and Mandarin and good at driving, Adabiyat was selected in 2005 to work as a ranger on the reserve, tasked with monitoring the wild horses.

"In the first few years, the horses didn't go far beyond the water sources," said Adabiyat, adding that during extreme weather conditions he and his colleges would provide forage and water to help them survive.

Gradually, they began to reduce the amount of human intervention in the horses' lives, in the hope that they would learn to live independently in the wild.

"Over the years, the horses have significantly increased the distances of their foraging trips, making it harder for me to track them," he said, explaining that this suggested they were increasingly becoming adapted to nature.

There are more than 2,000 Przewalski's horses in existence worldwide. Xinjiang has 477 of the animals, while the Kalamaili reserve has 267, about ten times the number in 2001.

According to experts, it will be years before the horses can live in the wild entirely on their own.

"Maybe one day, even I will be unable to track the horses easily," said Adabiyat. "Then, they can be called wild horses in the true sense."

While monitoring and caring for the horses, Adabiyat has also passed on his love for the animals to his five-year-old daughter. Every time she sees them on the reserve, she cheers happily with her father.

Adabiyat hopes that his daughter will major in animal conservation at college and continue his work on the reserve. Enditem