Mustangs "Near Extinction"?

bullskin · Jul 7, 2017

On my recent pronghorn scouting trip I counted 118 horses together in one band--all in a single canyon. That's a lot of water and forage consumed, and as these animals will come and go all day long preventing access by other large mammal species, I was not surprised to find very few goats in an area that would normally have many. I guess we can expect fewer and fewer deer and antelope tags as longs as BLM refuses to recognize its own population targets.

kalielkslayer · Jul 8, 2017

Where was this at?

About 6 years I was seeing approximately 100 horses a day chukar hunting; trip out, during the hunt nd trip back.

BLM did a roundup. Don't remember the numbers but it was like 460 captured and 260 retained with the others released. (They have rules to follow. Anything over 4 years old gets returned)

Anyways, the next year I never saw more than 25, usually way less. Within 3 years I was seeing the same numbers as before the roundup.

My theory is they don't breed that fast but they moved from fringe habitat to prime habitat when competition was removed.

My other theory is on wet years like this one, their impact is minimal. On dry years like the last 6, they really impact big game.

Our only hope is wolves.

kalielkslayer · Jul 8, 2017

I forgot to mention, when BLM does their "gathers" there are planets of antis protesting and running video. During the gather I mentioned the horses were herd via helicopter. A horse broke it's leg and it was on the Reno news for 4 nights.

I don't blame BLM, especially the local guys. They try hard pushing for roundups. They see the damage.

It's politics.

bullskin · Jul 8, 2017

I agree. I have no doubt that the BLM would round them up if not for the pressure applied by advocates. What I do not understand, however, is their reluctance to destroy the unadopted horses as the law clearly demands. Given that the average American cannot see anything of value in the high desert, I guess most do not recognize or care about the damage done by horses. Perhaps when they become more aware of the maintenance expense of these gathered horses they will demand that Congress act to eliminate them.

I'll have to be a little vague about the location, but is was in a herd management area with fewer than 30 AML.

NECALI · Jul 9, 2017

The animal rights groups crack me up. Remove all elk and deer from Santa Rosa Island off the Cal. coast because " they're a non native species". But don't touch those horses.what a crock! Whatever fits their agenda.

kalielkslayer · Jul 9, 2017

"WHAT EVER FITS THEIR AGENDA!"

Well spoken and relates to most of their agendas.

manny53 · Jul 10, 2017

>The animal rights groups crack me
>up. Remove all elk and
>deer from Santa Rosa Island
>off the Cal. coast because
>" they're a non native
>species". But don't touch those
>horses.what a crock! Whatever fits
>their agenda.

oh no not crack me up makes me wanna put them on the endangered fecies list

Deerdon · Jul 13, 2017

LAST EDITED ON Jul-13-17 AT 11:13PM (MST)[p]They did a roundup in Modoc county last year and I believe they captured a little over 200 head. Here's the kicker...under the agreement, they now have to return the horses that were not adopted. There was only a handful that were adopted!

A couple things...the carrying capacity of this area is like 400 and yet they have around 2500+.
The other thing that gets me is they keep using the term "wild horses." This is an incorrect term, as they are "FERAL" horses that are not native and are doing tremendous harm to the entire ecosystem. There are now more horses in X2 than antelope! If you hunt the juniper sage country, it's very easy to see as many as 100 horses a day!