by Robert C. Bauer,  Wildlife Biologist

“As stewards of the wild, we need to not see ourselves as above and separate from nature but intimately connected to it…”

Robert Bauer

Wild horses and Burros and all that surrounds them, have had an emotional effect upon this nation, both in a positive and negative way. The results have been an effort on both sides of the equation to artificially adjust factors to benefit their personal interests. Although many already know many aspects of this fight for, or against, the wild horses, there is much to be shared, I suppose, for us to think about.  As an introduction, most are aware that the devastation of western range lands has been attributed to what has been stated as an overpopulation of these wild equine, and a continual growth rate of roughly 20% annually, by the Bureau of Land Management. From this the BLM has determined to place an arbitrary number of wild horses that are to occupy a given area of rangelands, called an AML, or Appropriate Management Level. This is the number of wild horses that the BLM has determined, that the carrying capacity of the land can carry, or better stated the number of wild horses that they want to occupy any given area. This AML number is specific for the wild horses delegated to dwell in specific areas called HMAs, or Herd Management Areas. From there the numbers of wild horses and burros have been managed, through artificial methods, to determine that the population of equids of any given area does not exceed the AML. These artificial methods have varied, from adjusting sex ratios, to allowing the horses to be darted with fertility drugs. More brutal tactics have also been involved including isolating the wild horses from normal forage and water not to mention migratory routes. Then we come to the roundups, the captured animals separated from their families, and sold off, many times to the illegal slaughter pipeline. The other option is that they are kept in holding facilities indefinitely, at the taxpayer’s expense, while at times removing large numbers from these facilities after dark, only to recycle them through given roundups to propagate the illusion of overpopulation. This last scenario has been witnessed many times.

To encourage appropriations from the government to maintain this Wild Horse and Burro Program of the BLM, stories have erupted about overgrazing, and population numbers that are astronomical. This scenario continues about the necessity of the roundups because it is said that wild horses are non-native, yet the encouragement of cattle and sheep grazing, having their origins in Europe and Scandinavia, continues, species that are definitively non-native. Yet very few seem to be interested in the ecological impacts of removing this nation’s wild horses. Those that are fighting on their behalf are usually interested only in the legal, emotional, and native aspects, without considering what wild equine are doing for us, as human beings. The legal and native aspects are important I believe, however, if all including those opposed to these beneficial animals, could see in their hearts the benefits set in motion by this keystone species, the battle could be turned. Mankind, must be educated. Still, I have learned that regardless of education, the light must go on in the heart. It is a revelation that we open ourselves up to or choose to close it down through selfishness. With that thought, as a side note, I could ask all, of the nonprofits who say that they are working on behalf of the wild horses, if they are trying to work themselves out of a job, or is this about self-propagation. Much also could be shared concerning the sentient nature of wildlife, things not instinctive, but felt in the hearts of all forms of wildlife including wild equine. The root is the heart. What are our motives, and is our stewardship truly in compassion and righteousness.

In general, mankind, is an unthinking consumer. We take but do not restore, all for prideful and greedy motives. We alter by artificial means and finite thinking, something that has been maintaining itself for thousands of years, thinking we can do better than nature can itself. Fixed figures are delegated in place of dynamic principles, these principles continually adjusting, moment by moment and day by day, the aspects of balance. This occurs on the microbial level all the way up to major mammalian species. Nature, including all flora and fauna, both small and great, serve as restorers and revitalizers of life. This revolves around the oceans, including coral reef ecosystems, rainforests, deserts, and plains as well as western rangelands, with all its wild creatures that inhabit it, including wild equine. Ecosystems, to be brief, recycle, and remove waste, from carbon dioxide to solid physiological waste, not to mention continually producing the oxygen that we breath. Even certain microbial species are known to break down and remove toxic and harmful metals from the earth, species that most humans would consider pests.  Mercury, Cadmium, and Lead are just a few substances that these microscopic counterparts break down, as well as the fact that they contribute to the cleansing of the soil and groundwater.

Wolves are another example and keystone species, in this ecological equation. They work in conjunction with other species of predators and herbivores restoring entire areas in terms of wildlife species, vegetation, as well as overall geography. They have a positive effect on reducing erosion, contributing to the nutrient levels of the soil through carrion deposits left to decay not to mention helping to control the levels of herbivores as well as coexisting predators. Scavengers, also are connected to this predation and obtain nutrition from what the wolves have left.

The list goes on and on where nature through its own dynamic methods has proven itself as a benefit to everything around us while keeping itself in balance. It has mechanisms to replant and restore vegetation, revitalize nutrient levels, breakdown and recycle wastes, remove toxic substances, change geography for the benefit of all species, not to mention, regulate optimal levels of all wildlife species, as well as methods of preventing catastrophic events, including wildfires. Mankind, however is a taker, a consumer, and in most cases an unthinking parasite, destroying everything in its path.  Healthy ecosystems, however, along with its wildlife, through its own revitalizing methods are keeping mankind alive. The conclusion, without them we would have been extinct a long time ago. So, what is the role of wild horses in this scenario?

Wild equine, whether considered a native species, or reintroduced native, regardless can be considered a keystone component of any ecosystem, interacting with all other wild life in a positive manner. Their benefits many can reiterate but can be summarized as such:

The post gastric digestive system of wild equine does not completely digest vegetation. By virtue of this, with the foraging activity, and continual movement of these creatures, undigested seeds pass though this system and are redeposited into the ecosystem itself for new growth. In essence, whatever the wild horses eat, new growth is immediately reintroduced, for the benefit of coexisting ungulates and ruminants alike, and a healthy ecosystem.

In concert with this also, it must be understood that along with the reintroduction of new growth, nutrients found in the feces of wild horses, revitalizes the soil, as the humus content of the soil is increased along with water retention everywhere that the wild horses migrate. The revitalizing effect on the soil and subsequent growth positively impact all competitive grazers as well as predators that prey upon them. In essence, new growth attracts other herbivores, and with the growth in herbivore populations comes an increase in natural predators. Both predator and prey numbers fluctuate based upon densities of each, in concert with vegetation, keeping all in balance. This result is a positive cascade effect, revitalizing entire areas in terms of both flora and fauna, not to mention the general geography, but all through nature’s dynamic methods. Additionally, increased vegetation serves as a Carbon Dioxide sink that is recycled through photosynthetic processes to produce the Oxygen that we breath. I wonder sometimes where people think the oxygen is coming from that we breath. Overall, the effects may seem minute, but measured over large areas, the attributes can be felt and seen. Oceans and coral reef ecosystems are included in these aspects of balance, as well.

Yet this is one area the BLM is not only destroying the thriving natural ecological balance that they declare that they are striving to maintain, but also helping to annihilate mankind as a species, one step at a time. The positive effects of wild horses, in reference to impacts, has been documented in multiple areas throughout the world. All over the globe, wild horses have rejuvenated and restored dying ecosystems.

During winter months wild equine have been proven to break the ice in riparian areas where land meets the rivers and streams as well as ponds and lakes, to drink. This opens the way for other wild life also to have access to water. Water is vital for life in as much as the chemical make up of water is such that it serves as a dissipator of heat, serving also as either an acid or base to keep physiological pH where it should be. Additionally, it serves as an oxidizing agent to breakdown or reducing agent to form chemical bonds, as well as to effect physiological salinity levels. All species need these aspects of the nature of water.

Wild horses, also, because of their physiological makeup, consume dryer vegetation, yet in so doing have become a natural wildfire retardant. Considering the post gastric digestion of horses and burros, we cannot imagine how much dryer vegetation they consume, yet just as much the amount of fresh vegetation that is replanted through this physiological mechanism. It cannot be disputed the increase of devastating wild fires in direct correlation to the increase and continuance of wild equine roundups.

To summarize, the presence of wild horses, changes the face of an ecosystem for the better, decreasing erosion, by encouraging growth of vegetation. The vegetation has a positive effect on the general geography, and in turn encourages the presence of competitive ruminants and predators. All of this plays a part in the balance, and the general face of the landscape, in concert with density dependent and independent inhibitory principles. The manmade artificial depletion or adjustment of any of these factors creates a negative cascade effect. The result is a breakdown of something that the BLM claims to be building up.

As a side note the self-regulating nature of wild horses cannot be forgotten as well, concerning their numbers. Within the physiological and behavioral makeup of wild horses comes the concept of delayed implantation and spontaneous abortion. This phenomenon comes into play during times of environmental stress, not to mention that during these times the band stallions may not breed at all. This self-regulating nature of wild equine, assists adjusting to balance, the perfect numbers of wild horses and or burros in any area, at any given time, along with mortality and density dependent and independent inhibitory mechanisms. To see these aspects in the balance is to help expose the lies of overpopulation.

Contrary to this thought, cattle have proven to be a detriment, not only being non-native, having their origins in Europe and Scandinavian countries, as has been already stated, but also in their grazing habits. They have been shown, through photo documentation, and grazing effects, to promote erosion as well as pollution to riparian habitats. This is primarily due, to the fact that incisors exist only in the lower jaw, encouraging a ripping effect which pulls vegetation out by the roots. This and the general habitual congregating and wallowing in these aqueous areas, promotes erosion, while defecation and urination in these aqueous regions, have made these areas unusable. Also, this tendency for cattle to rip vegetation out by the roots, and not replant and redistribute, due to the pre-gastric digestion, depletes and devastates the range lands, something falsely attributed to the wild horses. Additionally, cattle populations in these HMAs have been known to outnumber wild horses and burros, as much as 100 to 1. This out of balance ratio can be blamed upon the deceitful propaganda of the BLM. Yet the continual leasing of these HMAs to ranchers, goes unchecked, areas that are legally set aside for the wild horses as the principal species for the promotion of a thriving natural ecological balance.

The self-righteous tunnel vision behind the concept of the appropriate management level, as has been stated above, expresses how much forage that the BLM has determined to be for the wild horses, and not how much nature, and the carrying capacity of the land, can handle. Finite minds focused only on monetary gains, have placed a fixed number upon nature per area. To reiterate, however, nature is dynamic continually adjusting itself through the above expressed principles of density dependent and independent inhibition. Each of the aspects of the above principles does not work independently but rather in concert, based upon the carrying capacity of the land. Where one aspect is more or less, the mechanisms of nature adjust. To artificially try to alter nature based upon finite thought and prideful and selfish ambitions, again is to create a devastating negative impact.

Death in the wild is something also that emotionally effects many humans, and used as an excuse by the BLM and Dept of Interior to reduce numbers of the wild horses from any given area.  Life and death in the wild, due to sickness, age or predators or lack of natural forage, however, is a factor as to how nature carries out its mechanisms, and maintains a thriving natural ecological balance. The key word however is, “Natural,” as opposed to manmade. It can never be thought of as a thriving “Natural” ecological balance when manmade fixed numbers, artificial strategies, and finite thinking are used to alter an ecosystem for greed or pride, let alone for genuine motives.

Enter, the use of contraceptives and concepts of sterilization, along with continued roundups. The use of PZP or GonaCon, after multiple uses has been known to completely sterilize breeding mares. It is unnatural and creates side effects including a weakening of the equine immune system. This effect alone potentially increases annual mortality percentages. Couple the use of contraceptives with the roundups, adjustment of sex ratios, and normal annual death rates, and the BLM have ushered in the extinction of a vital component of balance.

The issue is that mankind believes that they can manage nature, including equine populations, better than nature can itself.  Junk science and biased propaganda state that wild horses breed out of control instituting a general annual population growth rate of 20%, as stated above. This is despite natural mortality rates of 14%-50% 1^st year mortality, and 5%-25% mortality of those above 1 year old. The concept of reproductive compensation as a result of the roundups has been exaggerated as well. This states that wild equine populations increase exponentially after these episodes of wild horse gathers, thus necessitating the use of more contraceptives and sterilization to curb the growth, along with increased roundups. This natural phenomenon does occur but not to the extent that the BLM wants the public to believe, but only gradually, but never out paces the other aspects of balance. To use a phrase that I have shared before, the wild horses and burros due not breed like sex crazed rabbits. Regardless, the by-product of this philosophy of the removals and the contraceptives, is loss of genetic viability, inbreeding, a loss in equine family dynamics, and a strategic yet planned extermination of wild horses and burros, vital components of a thriving natural ecological balance.

As stewards of the wild, we need to not see ourselves as above and separate from nature but intimately connected to it, serving in humility and compassion, with the understanding that whatever we are doing to nature, including its keystone species, the wild horses, we are doing to ourselves, and that which is keeping us alive.

Being aware of the struggles that go on between predator and prey, there is still a beautiful harmony brought about by the natural balance. This is why we feel so much at peace in the natural world, because it is not manmade.  Yet mankind has always had an arrogant, “see what I have done” attitude, that he can alter artificially something so beautiful and dynamic, and think that he has done better for it. But the beauty of the natural world, is because it is dynamic, and through its own mechanisms, which always work in concert with each other, is continually adjusting itself, day by day, moment by moment, to maintain itself.

Mankind needs to protect, but not artificially alter or manage. This thought process is a product of finite, greedy, and arrogant thought processes. We need to maintain a hands-off mentality. Let it be what it is. Protect and put back those we have taken away. Release all those that have been rounded up, back to the areas from which they were taken. They know the way, and we can enjoy the serenity of what is not manmade or altered. This is peace and revelation. We are intimately connected, and how we act as stewards will come back on us, either for good, or for evil. With all of nature’s regenerative and recycling aspects, strictly from a biological standpoint, it is that which is allowing us to continue life. The wild horses are an intimate and vital component of this regenerative scenario. Let them remain, unmanaged and untouched, in numbers that nature dictates. Nature is trying to teach us, but are we listening?