Wild Horses Research Paper

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Video from Shannon’s friend: https://youtu.be/OSE3DlQhz5g
BLM on Today Show: https://youtu.be/VQvNFE95RhY

Today, there are more wild horses being “held” in facilities than currently in the wild. Since the 19th century, the number of wild horses free in the West have declined by 98%. The practices of removing American horses off public lands is decimating their numbers. Thousands of wild horses every year are being herded by helicopters and vehicles into holding pens. The ones who survive being separated from their families, greatly weakened from exhaustion, or substandard veterinary care and handler abuse are stockpiled until they’re sold at auction or die -- never to run wild again.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) which manages the …show more content…

Gus Cothran, a clinical professor of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University, has stated that the U.S. burro population is at a genetic breaking point due to the many BLM roundups. This reduction in population is resulting in an increase in inbreeding due to a lack of genetic variability. Burro populations have only a 20 percent (20%) genetic variability factor compared to a healthy genetic variability of 70%.
Such figures led the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to warn in its 2013 report that "removing burros permanently from the range could jeopardize the genetic health of the total population." The NAS investigation also concluded that the BLM "may need to assess whether the AMLs [Allowable Management Levels] set for burros can sustain a genetically healthy total population."
Based on his DNA analysis, Dr. Cothran believes that the minimum size for both wild horse and burro herds is between 150-200 animals. Within a herd this size, about 100 animals will be of breeding age. Of those 100, approximately 50 animals would comprise the genetic effective population size. That is, these 50 animals are those that are actually contributing their genes to the next generation. Dr. Cothran has stated that 50 is the absolute minimum number. A higher number would decrease the chances for inbreeding; the higher the number, the lower the occurrence of

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