4 ms·

For a similar comparison, wild horses do surprisingly well in some desert regions of the Southwest US. It's a surprising treat to see a healthy herd of horses m

by rurp 2y ago

For a similar comparison, wild horses do surprisingly well in some desert regions of the Southwest US. It's a surprising treat to see a healthy herd of horses meandering through Joshua Trees. They can apparently do pretty well on sparse grasses and shrubs. Those horse populations do well enough that the BLM regularly kills some off to limit the numbers. Ostensibly it's to protect the environment, but given the number of legal and illegal cattle that's allowed to graze on those same public lands I think the culling is mostly at the behest of ranchers.

MostlyStable 2y ago
"Do surprisingly well" depends on your expectations I guess. Yes, it can be a treat to see a healthy herd. It's much less a treat to see emaciated, dehydrated horses, which are not that uncommon: https://stateline.org/2022/07/20/westerners-struggle-to-manage-booming-wild-horse-populations/ https://stateline.org/2022/07/20/westerners-struggle-to-mana... and while one can argue about the "true" motivations of the people arguing for culling/control, it's absolute true that conservation organizations think that feral horses are bad for the environment: https://wildlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FactSheet-HorsesAndBurros_FINAL.pdf https://wildlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FactSheet-Ho...
- sriacha 2y ago
  Wild horses in North America are a very interesting question. All equids evolved in North America. For tens of millions of years they were here, and only have been gone for ~10,000 years until being reintroduced by the spanish. [1] [1] See the fantastic book "Twilight of the Mammoths"
verisimi 2y ago
I thought BLM was more of an urban thing..
- dantillberg 2y ago
  Bureau of Land Management :)
Marsymars 2y ago
There are also the feral horses on Sable Island, which is basically just a sand dune with some grass: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sable_Island_horse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sable_Island_horse

by rurp 2y ago

MostlyStable 2y ago

"Do surprisingly well" depends on your expectations I guess. Yes, it can be a treat to see a healthy herd. It's much less a treat to see emaciated, dehydrated horses, which are not that uncommon: https://stateline.org/2022/07/20/westerners-struggle-to-manage-booming-wild-horse-populations/ https://stateline.org/2022/07/20/westerners-struggle-to-mana... and while one can argue about the "true" motivations of the people arguing for culling/control, it's absolute true that conservation organizations think that feral horses are bad for the environment: https://wildlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FactSheet-HorsesAndBurros_FINAL.pdf https://wildlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FactSheet-Ho...

sriacha 2y ago
Wild horses in North America are a very interesting question. All equids evolved in North America. For tens of millions of years they were here, and only have been gone for ~10,000 years until being reintroduced by the spanish. [1] [1] See the fantastic book "Twilight of the Mammoths"

verisimi 2y ago

I thought BLM was more of an urban thing..

dantillberg 2y ago
Bureau of Land Management :)

Marsymars 2y ago

There are also the feral horses on Sable Island, which is basically just a sand dune with some grass: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sable_Island_horse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sable_Island_horse