2 stock trailers released 25 studs as Clan Alpine winds down.
BLMs capture goal of 1594 will probably be reached later today (or by tomorrow). You can see team report HERE.
Release numbers are always “capture dependent.” Meaning, BLM will release the number in the press release only if they hit the capture goals.
BLM published an “estimated population” of 1993 wild horses prior to the operation (but did not publish the flyover data). BLM estimates an Appropriate Management Level (AML, or the number of wild horses they say can be on the range) of 612-979 on the 304,763 acres Herd Management Area (HMA).
After reaching the target for capture, the estimated population would be somewhere around 399 (213 below low AML). Nature tends to favor females in a 60 or 65 percent ratio. However, during capture stallions are more likely to evade or fail to be captured because the chopper focuses on family bands of wild horses. A roundup, in and of itself, tends to skew population. This is something BLM fails to recognize in “modeling.” So the ratio left on the range has already been skewed to favor males. BLM plans to push that further perpetuating an old myth disproven by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) that sex-skewing slows reproduction… it just increases tension.
BLM has treated 81 mares with a heavy hormonal hit of GonaCon and will retreat with a second dose prior to release.
BLM chose these horses all from the first 2 traps. This will allow them to retreat, release and breakdown faster. Although they claim that this is a “color and confirmation” (or genetics because that is where color and confirmation come from), it is not. This is convenience. No matter how great a mare looks coming in after the first few days, she has no chance of going home. If she does go home, she won’t ovulate for 5-10 years. If she is over 15, chances of her ever having another foal are pretty slim. So the idea that this is to “protect genetics” is pretty bizarre. All the studies we see from BLM about GonaCon focus on “less time and money” and not impact to the herds survival or behavior.
BLM released the first of the studs back to the range while the chopper was in the air to the north.
BLM said they will release “up to 121 studs” if they reach capture goal. This will achieve the “sex-skewing” lumped on top of heavy fertility control use in mares. What we have seen in these circumstances is an increased tension on the range and the few fertile mares mobbed.
At Clan Alpine the consequences won’t be as bad as areas such as Hardtrigger and Black Mountain in Idaho or Reveille, Surprise and Calico in NV where BLM only left a handful of fertile mares and more than 90% of mares on the range will not exhibit sexual behaviors.
If BLM releases all 121 studs, and all 81 mares live to be released, the post roundup population will be somewhere around 601 (using BLM numbers). At or below low AML of 612 with a high probability that BLM won’t have to go back for decades.
But AML was never fixed, forage allocation was never made fair, critical habitat was never identified and BLM never addressed the massive overlap with neighboring HMAs like New Pass/Ravenswood to the East and the Pershing Complex to the North.
In this area BLM will hit the Pershing Complex next with a massive removal of 2,875 wild horses and none will be released. That roundup begins on December 28. We do not expect BLM to do any flyover to determine how many horses are actually in the complex before the roundup.
Our team member remains onsite.
You can see the 2024 schedule HERE. The fiscal year 2024 began October 1.
Prior to going to the East Pershing Complex, BLM will hit the NV Wild Horse Range with helicopter drive trapping. No public observation is historically allowed due to shared space with a military base. Centennial has the same situation with shared military space.
Bait trap operations continue and McCullough Peaks is expected to begin today (listed on schedule as Nov 1. Roads in the area will be closed near bait trapping as BLM says they received threats of interference.) Although the BLM in 2011 began treating McCullough Peaks’ mares with a drug called Porcine Zona Pellucida vaccine (PZP), applied in the field via darting, BLM is also planning to switch McCullough to GonaCon as they “expand fertility control.”
End of year funding is critical to all nonprofits.
Thank you for keeping us in the fight to protect and preserve our wild ones.