"Save the Wild Horses" Topic

Beautifull animals.
Hope they can be save.

link

Amicalement
Armand

Saw a herd of them while on a steam locomotive ride last Summer from Carson City to Virginia City, Nevada.
They were beautiful, and it was somewhat awe-inspiring to see them wild and free, just roaming.

My kids loved the new foal walking along with the herd.

What a thrill.

What a good experience my friend.

Amicalement
Armand

As scenic as they look, do keep in mind that they are an introduced species and are not native to North America.

You could say the same about us, Rex.

Well said, Zippy!

Not only are they not native they are very hard on the range and they spread diseases to the native species.

Here in Arizona we have the "wild burros", descendants of burros that were released by old prospectors. They were given protection in the '60 by the Feds. under pressure from do gooders who had not idea of the damage that the "cute little burros" do to the desert. They are a real problem for the State Game & Fish dept. one of who's missions is to reintroduce desert bighorn sheep in areas where they have disappeared and to expand their numbers in the areas where they still roam. The "wild burros" compete for the same resources and do a lot of damage to local desert habitat that takes years to recover and pass along diseases that the bighorn sheep aren't equipped to fight.

Actually – funny thing is – Horses ARE native to North America.

By all accounts, they evolved here first and spread to Asia and onward… They just died out here long before Europeans came.

StarCruiser, That's not a very fair argument (and the part about them having "evolved here first" is hardly agreed-upon in science). Yes, horses evolved here, and yes, there are skeletal remains of the "modern" horse in North America. But those all died out around 12,000 years ago.

Only the re-introduced modern horse has descendants in this continent.

I think it's reasonable to say that a species that has been absent from any region for more than 10,000 years is no longer a "native."

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To be honest, the whole native/not native argument seems to be disingenuous shenanigans on both sides of the argument (in other words, they're trying to use some "natural" argument to bolster their position). Let's just be honest about it: They are no longer a native species to this continent, but they have clearly become integrated into the environment/ecology of our nation. Therefore, as a matter of responsible husbandry, it is our duty to manage the herds and keep them in balance with with other species who share the range with them. Sometimes this will mean assisting them by providing water in droughts, and other times it may include culling herds to remove disease and protect diminished food supplies.

My personal opinion is that they are beautiful, majestic creatures and having some herds roaming free is both good and noble. I firmly reject any twisted notion that the primary goal of environmental policy should be to return our wilderness to the state of some mythical pre-human paradise. Our goal should be to create a balance between preservation human need.