Keeptrying
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Wyoming wild horses
- Thread starter timbertrash
- Start date
While they may not kill game directly they do kill the country they tear up and overgraze and may in fact inadvertently be killing game.
Come to NV and you will see firsthand the damage these feral horses are doing.
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Topgun 30-06
Active member
They sure do damage the land! I've been in 2b down in northern NM twice and there were as many horses in that country as deer. The NF biologist we talked to down there would like to kill them all and yet can't do a thing about them. There are also a lot in the country north of the highway just to the east of Cody, WY.
BrentD
Well-known member
There is no question that horses and burros are not loved by biologists. I certainly do not love them in the wild, though I have two that are watching me from about 15 ft as type this. That said, do we really know that they are destroying habitat? I hear that, I tend to believe that, but I confess, I have never seen the data. Yet all of the public areas that I've seen with horses (e.g., east of Rawlins, WY have many multiples more cattle than horses and are grazed very hard to my eye. How can you say the horses are responsible for overgrazing but not the cattle?
Anyway, wolves have a very different effect and they do it very well. It is not just simply killing elk but changing their behavior. It changes many things down the food chain.
Anyway, wolves have a very different effect and they do it very well. It is not just simply killing elk but changing their behavior. It changes many things down the food chain.
Topgun 30-06
Active member
They definitely didn't seem to be afraid of us when we were in NM. I learned something from the Biologist there when I mentioned that I saw a huge mound of horse shit on one of the roads and he said that's how the dominant stallion in the area marks his territory by taking a dump on the same mounds in his area every day.
brnsvllyjohn
Active member
https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/co...-by-the-public-but-destroying-water-resources
Article on horses in California. I was up there last year and was absolutely amazed they are everywhere in the deer zone my son was hunting.
I told some hunting buddies and they laughed and said there is no way that horses could cause a problem. Of course they are horse owners.
Article on horses in California. I was up there last year and was absolutely amazed they are everywhere in the deer zone my son was hunting.
I told some hunting buddies and they laughed and said there is no way that horses could cause a problem. Of course they are horse owners.
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Keeptrying
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Owning horses should not preclude one from having some perspective on the issue. I very much enjoy my paint, but understand that wild horses are far above stated limits, are not rotated or managed for usage like cattle, and can be very aggresive to native ungulates.
Yes there is data showing the negative impact of wild horses, both quantitative and qualitative. When doing utilization data collection, one cannot determine what type of critter took the bite. Lots of law case history on that in NV... That said, if the utilization is over standard/objective the administrative remedies in regards to permitted livestock grazing are more efficient to implement, and can actually be implemented, versus the administrative remedies for wild horses.
The numbers alone (cattle vs horses) does not give the whole story when it comes to the effect or results of grazing. Time and timing are factors to be considered as well and IMO can be more important than numbers alone.
Horse
Active member
I wasn't trying to say wolves are doing the "same" damage. My point is people(lawmakers) who live far away from the problems caused by over population of horses, wolves, hogs, etc. don't have to deal with it. They just think they're cute ponies and fuzzy puppies. But for that matter, when horses or other animals are destoying and or depleting the environment, it effects the other animals in the area. Over population is a negative no matter what the species is.
BrentD
Well-known member
Okay, Horse, but I think you are oversimplying things. Lots of people have lots of problems with it. There is plenty of blame to pass around and plenty of different opinions of what to do about it. As for people far away - well, the people far away mostly pay for that land, and they definitely have federal, not state law involved. It is part of the bargain that goes with our system of governance. Overall, it's not a bad trade. That said, lots of people know the problem and are trying to deal with it in different ways. Only Keyboard Rangers have any instant and simple solutions.
LuketheDog
Well-known member
...turn the wolves loose where the feral horses live
...make the "horse lovers" adopt one feral horse every time they protest over their beloved feral horses (note, the same horses that they have probably NEVER even laid eyes on in their entire pathetic lives!)
There, in roughly five seconds: two completely uninformed, non scientific, knee-jerk, ha-ha, Keyboard Ranger solutions!
Keeptrying
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Follow federal statute. Problem solved.
shootbrownelk
Well-known member
Some folks keep calling them "Wild" horses, when in fact they are FERAL horses and an invasive/destructive species. They're the Asian Carp of the prairies.
ssssnake529
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The wild (feral) horse problem has an easy solution. Allow them to be harvested and sold to the Japanese and other folks who eat horse meat. Then use their hides for leather.
Better than spending tax dollars maintaining thousands of feral horses.
Better than spending tax dollars maintaining thousands of feral horses.
BrentD
Well-known member
Not that I like being a grammar cop, but feral is usually reserved for populations that are sustained through escape from domestic populations.
Horses, like Iowa pheasants or a good brown trout population are sustained through reproduction in the wild and are therefore, usually termed wild, exotic yes, but not feral.
ssssnake529, that's a good Keyboard Ranger solution. Like all overly simplistic solutions, it won't happen.
Horses, like Iowa pheasants or a good brown trout population are sustained through reproduction in the wild and are therefore, usually termed wild, exotic yes, but not feral.
ssssnake529, that's a good Keyboard Ranger solution. Like all overly simplistic solutions, it won't happen.
Keeptrying
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With our current leadership I wouldn't be so sure, Brent.
Hard to see it happening, but who knows.
Hard to see it happening, but who knows.
BrentD
Well-known member
As soon as those horses have marketability they are no longer a problem - they are a crop. And so far as being on the range, they will be there for the buck$ of it all. Then all that has been accomplished is creating a new commodity to be produced on public land, and another demand for it (the land).
BrentD
Well-known member
But your point is well taken, Keeptrying.
