What will horses look like in the future

Equine Genetics: Looking to the Future One researcher explains why he believes a central repository is needed for equine gene expression information. Favorite Share:. Scientists have since used equine genome information to study reproduction Photo: iStock. The Human Genome Project changed that. Create a free account with TheHorse. Sign Up Already have an account? About The Author. Equine Disease Quarterly. Leave a reply Cancel reply You must be logged in to post a comment.

Next Diagnostic Sample Submission Guidelines. Related Posts. Dead space. Search Search for:. Weekly Poll:. Do you plan to blanket your horse this winter? Yes, my horse will wear a blanket this winter. Yes, my horse will wear a blanket, but only during inclement weather. No, I do not plan to blanket my horse. Featured Horse Listing. Color: Bay. Breed: Mustang. Other factors, including aridity and carbon dioxide concentration, did not match up as well. He and his colleagues reported the findings Thursday in the journal Science.

The findings fit with what is known about modern-day mammals and birds, which are generally smaller near the equator. This may be because smaller size helps animals regulate their body temperatures in the heat, or perhaps because of the availability of food sources.

Much of the land near the equator is arid, and food sources are slim, Bloch said. Mammals in a warming world The world experienced about the same amount of warming during the PETM as some climate models project it will in response to today's greenhouse gas emissions. The difference, Bloch said, is that the warming in the PETM happened over , years, while modern temperatures could reach PETM levels within a century or so if projections are correct.

If animals can't evolve quickly enough to keep up, they're more likely to go extinct. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter livescience and on. How is it fair to the reptiles, songbirds, small mammals, pronghorn, and future generations of people to inherit a degraded rangeland that we could have prevented? That is an interesting question. It has to do with the future. What do we want in the future? What do we want to leave, in terms of legacy, to future generations of humans, landscapes, and wildlife?

To me it boils down to resilience. If we have resilient landscapes, with lots of biodiversity in the wildlife and vegetation structure, then they will be able to persevere through whatever changes may occur, whether that will be climate changes, drought cycles, wet cycles, fire, war, you name it.

The land will be able to face those things. The more resilient our landscapes are, the better off they, and we, will be in the future. The photos were hard to look at: starving foals suckling from mothers who were just skin and bone; horses with their ribs and hips protruding, too weak to be rounded up.

Forage conditions were so dire the horses were eating spiny Joshua trees. The Appropriate Management Level for the herd management area is 47 to 66 wild horses and 20 to 35 burros, but the estimated population was about horses and burros.

The BLM conducted an emergency roundup of more than animals, and vets made the decision to euthanize 30 desperately weak individuals. The gathered horses were put up for adoption, and some will likely live in a holding facility for the rest of their lives along with 45, other wild horses already locked up. Proponents of public land ranching claim that managed grazing is an efficient way to eradicate invasive plants, feeds humans, and stimulates rural economies.

And, they argue that public land ranching preserves the livelihoods of cowboys, which are often dependent on public lands and equally or more important than conserving the wild horses. Meanwhile, many wildlife organizations question why livestock are at the center of a public lands grazing battle when native animals like bison, bighorn sheep, elk, pronghorn, mule deer, wolves, and grizzlies still have lots of room to expand to their historic ranges since being nearly eliminated a century ago.

Nationwide, the BLM currently authorizes 8. This is fewer than half of the 18 million AUMs issued in the s. In comparison, there are approximately 75, wild horses, three times the Appropriate Management Level, effectively utilizing , AUMs on the In , the most recent year I could acquire forage allocation data, the BLM gave out nearly 1.

This ratio can and does change due to rescinded cattle and livestock permits during drought, rising horse populations, and livestock AUMs reduced due to forage competition by wild horse. In some Herd Management Areas, there is still forage to take away from livestock operators to give to horses. In other areas, especially where horses are up to 10 times over appropriate management level, all or most of the forage has already been taken away from livestock permit holders. Bison, the undisputed native large herbivore in North America, are nonexistent on these same lands.

But managing excess wild horses is an emotional subject that politicians, public figures, and even the press avoid. Some organizations have filed lawsuits or launched campaigns to sway public opinion toward prohibiting management solutions, including population control, euthanasia, sale, roundups, slaughter, or culls. While the stagnation within the BLM, state governments, and Congress continues, wild horse populations grow exponentially. Is there a sustainable solution that is publicly acceptable to all stakeholders?

Ben Masters is a filmmaker, writer, and horse hand who splits his time between Bozeman, Montana, and Austin, Texas. Masters is best known for Unbranded , an adventure documentary where he and three friends adopted wild horses and rode 3, miles across the American West to inspire people to adopt mustangs. This four-part series and short film presents his experiences, research, and interviews on the controversial wild horse issue in the United States.

All rights reserved. Ben Masters: What did this land look like before European settlement, livestock grazing, and the introduction of exotic plants? A lot of wildlife biologists, ecologists, and conservation organizations blame wild horses for rangeland damage. What is cheatgrass, and how bad can it get?