It’s hard to miss the horses on the way to the mountains.
They’ve established free-roaming populations throughout the foothills and grasslands of Alberta’s eastern slopes, with herds of wild horses almost guaranteed to be seen off Highway 1 west of Calgary year-round.
But the abundance of what the Alberta government calls “feral horses” has reached “unacceptable” levels, according to the province’s horse management strategy.
Framing is important. “Wild” anything is precious and rare. Human civilization has swallowed most earth systems for it’s own purposes, leaving very little wild left anywhere.
I suggest we leave the horses alone and consider our footprint as the one needing a fix.
Horses are part of humanity’s footprint. They’re invasive to North America, and degrade native ecosystems.
Funny enough, they are not. They are from North America originally, but went extinct about 12,000 years ago when humans started hunting them. They only came to Europe about one to three million years ago.
https://www.uaf.edu/news/study-sheds-light-on-ancient-horse-migrations-climate-change.php
https://awionline.org/content/wild-horses-native-north-american-wildlife
That’s really interesting. Thanks for those links.
IMO the question is whether current ecosystems are degraded by the reintroduction of horses. It sounds like they have a negative impact on existing ungulates and (maybe?) soils.
I don’t know enough to say if an ecosystem that has existed for 12,000 years without horses that has horses reintroduction, is being degraded or returned to its previous state.
As an aside the main reason Marlaina is pushing for a large cull (based on quack numbers) is because the cattle ranchers push for it every year.
Removing the horses won’t help the environment because they’ll just be replaced by herds of cattle.
Same for me, I just wanted to brag with my equine knowledge 💖
❤️🔥🐎💖🐴🫀🐎❤️🔥
And what is your point. These horses are jot native here as they are alive. And the"horses" that lived here where not the ones that are here now.
Uh…the humans who live here are not the ones from 100 years ago.
My point is, what sbv wrote wasn’t true, so I added additional info. How dare I, right? Knowledge is the enemy 😭
They are not wild. They are an invasive species that we brought here.
North America had horses before Europeans brought them over. They were native, but went extinct.
As with other wild populations, the animals’ health, ecological sustainability and whether they are reservoirs of infectious disease would be the paramount concern.
Not sure that the current provincial government has the credibility in evidence-based decision making to be able to sustain any interventions.
Alberta just likes killing things: horses, wolves, bears. All in the spirit of conservation. Kill wolves to save the caribou - if you can shoot them from a helicopter, even better…no leave large tracts of forest in tact, you’ll save the caribou. Stop with survey lines and unnecessary roads into caribou territory, which makes it easier for wolves to stalk the caribou.
I mean you always have the option of letting the population get out of control and then have a bunch of animals starving.
Marlaina couldn’t tell the truth if her life depended on it.
If she can verify the number of wild horses with actual facts - and the numbers are enough to lead to starvation - then a cull should happen.
But she’s lying as usual.
The advocacy group does its own aerial survey of the Sundre zone’s horse population. Glover, who has been a pilot for half a century, says the group counted 1,005 horses this year — just over the province’s population threshold but significantly lower than the government’s findings.
Last year, the provincial survey counted 855 horses in the Sundre zone.
Glover said that increase of more than 50 per cent is “physically and biologically impossible.”
At the very least the government needs to look into why their numbers are inaccurate first
Just let them drink from the tailings “ponds” at Fort Mac.
I love eating horse meat. meat is so lean and tasty. glad it’s legal to buy in Canada.
