Kazakh semi-desert ("Ovis ammon collium"), goitered gazelle ("Gazella subgutterosa"), Pallas's cat ("Otocolobus manul"), gray wolf ("Canis lupus"), European badger ("Meles meles") and marbled polecat ("Vormela peregusna"). Przewalski's horse ("Equus ferus przewalskii") is native to the ecoregion, but has not been seen in it since 1968. Avian species include the common crane ("Grus grus"), demoiselle crane ("Anthropoides virgo"), red-headed bunting ("Emberiza bruniceps"), larks ("Alaudidae"), wheatears ("Oenanthe"), pipits ("Anthus" spp.), black-bellied sandgrouse ("Pterocles orientalis"), Pallas’s sandgrouse ("Syrrhaptes paradoxus"), steppe eagle ("Aquila rapax"), golden eagle ("Aquila chrysaetos"), peregrine falcon ("Falco peregrinus") and the saker falcon ("Falco cherrug"). Agriculture, overgrazing, and fragmentation of habitat from human
Meles Zenawi Selassie University) for two years before dropping out his studies in 1974 to join other students and form Tigrayan National Organization (TNO) the forerunner TPLF in Dedebit, Tigray. Aregawi Berhe, a former member of the TPLF, notes that historians John Young and Jenny Hammond "vaguely indicated" Meles as founder TPLF in their books. Aregawi insists that both he and Sebhat Nega joined the Front "months" after it was founded. While a member of the TPLF, Meles established the Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray (MLLT). TPLF was one of armed groups struggling against Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam and the Derg, the junta