[3] Until recently it was believed that this alkaline steppe was formed by the clear cutting of huge forests in the Middle Ages, followed by measures to control the course of the Tisza River, allegedly resulting in the soil's current structure and pH.

However, Hortobágy is much older, with alkalinization estimated to have started ten thousand years ago, when the Tisza first found its way through the Great Hungarian Plain, cutting off many streams from their sources in the Northern Mountains.

[4] The site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999 because of its long cultural history (stretching back more than four millennia), its scenery, and its testimony to traditional methods of pastoralism.

[7] Hortobágy is a steppe, a grassy plain with Hungarian Grey cattle, racka, Italian Mediterranean buffalo, and Nonius horses tended by mounted herdsmen called Csikós.

[8] Hortobágy is also a place where a herd of around 25 Przewalski's horse are living, a breeding center for Taurus cattle, one of several attempts to re-create the extinct aurochs, and just outside the park is an animal hospital and a small zoo for rescued animals that can't be relased into the wild such as Eurasian wolfs, European jackals, Saker falcons, Eurasian griffon vultures, Great white pelicans, Greylag geese, European wildcat, and carpathian Wild boar.