Craig Downer, Wildlife Ecologist, visited the foothills around the Sundre area in December, 2015. His new report provides critical information to help recover Alberta’s natural ecosystems and outlines why wild horses are an essential part of that recovery.
Click on the following .pdf to read this report.
Friends of the Nemaiah Valley (FONV.ca) has engaged in a variety of primary research projects. There are 150-250 wild horses that live in the Brittany Triangle in the Chilcotin area of the interior of BC.
In early January, “A Preliminary Genetic Study of the Wild Horse in the Brittany Triangle” was released. This report, prepared for the Xeni Gwet’in First Nations, FONV (co-funders of the report) and the Valhalla Wilderness Society, was co-authored by Texas A&M’s authority on horse genetics, Dr. Gus Cothran, and B.C. biologist, Wayne McCrory. While this research on the genetics of the wild horses of the Brittany Triangle took place over a number of years and involved both wild horse hair samples and blood samples, “The results pose more questions than they answer.” (Wayne McCrory).
Click on this .pdf of Dr. McCrory’s research which will open in a new window.
Another interesting study undertaken by Wayne McCrory, March, 2002 can be read by clicking on the following link:
The Yukon Horse
Read about this extinct species of the genus Equus that ranged across North America until approximately 10,000 years ago.
Back in 2008 when an Alberta wild horse was shot, Gail Praharenka submitted an article to WHOAS documenting how the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) utilized the wild horses when their thoroughbred horses from the east could not stand up to the rigours of the west.
“Do Wild Horses Consume Forage at the Expense of Cattle?” Tony Daffern presents information on this issue. Read all about it at the following link:
http://Kananaskisblog.com/wild-horse-forage/2014
The following article was published online in the Salt Lake Tribune and was written by Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick. Wild horse contraceptives are explained and defended based on sound science.
Wild horse contraceptives article
Foal Control: An Interview with Jay Kirkpatrick by Elizabeth Devitt
The Bureau of Land Management recently authorized spending $11 million to research more effective strategies to rein in the population growth of wild horses. Several of the new studies target equine birth control, but that’s not a novel idea in mustang management. For almost two decades, the nonprofit Science and Conservation Center in Billings, Montana has produced a vaccine called PZP that controls reproduction in 85 species of wildlife – wapiti, elephants, white tailed deer … and wild horses. So why aren’t all those mustang mares on birth control? An interview with Jay Kirkpatrick, the founder of the centre, can be read at the following link:
https://www.beaconreader.com/elizabeth-devitt/foal-control-an-interview-with-jay-kirkpatrick
The Wild Horses of Alberta Society 