Wild, free-roaming horses :   status of present knowledge

Zarn, Mark.; Collins, Kay; Heller, Thomas

doi:10.5962/bhl.title.63037

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Not only did Australian scientists fail to exhibit much skepticism toward McKnight's work, but they also showed little interest in information on the ecology of feral horses gathered elsewhere ( e g , Pellegrini 1971;Feist 1971;Cook 1975;Zarn, Heller, and Collins 1977;Ryden 1978;Smith Thomas 1979; Committee on Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros 1982). Even those who confronted the issue of native and feral animals in the context of the future of Australia's arid lands ignored feral horses, instead focusing on feral cats and foxes (Denny 1982:23-24).…”

Section: Mcknight On Feral Horsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contested Realities: Feral Horses in Outback Australia

Symanski

1994

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

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Prior to 1980, feral horse numbers in the Northern Territory of Australia were thought to be low, between 40,000 and 60,000. Based on research done by an American geographer, these estimates should have been critically scrutinized by Australian scientists. They were, however, accepted uncritically. Then in the early 1980s, helicopter censuses showed that the feral horse population was more than 200,000, a figure that, when adjusted upward to 238,000, became the basis for urging pastoralists to join with the Territory's conservation commission to sharply reduce the number of horses. But because of public outcry, the unwillingness of pastoralists to participate in a horse‐reduction program, and a slow‐footed conservation commission, virtually nothing was done. By the late 1980s, the “problem” of feral horses had been redefined. Without supporting data or good reason to believe that large numbers of horses had died through drought or other means, the estimate of horse numbers was adjusted downward to 70,000. The reasons for this redefinition are social and political, and were unrelated to new biological knowledge or the available technical means to dramatically reduce horse populations. While this narrative of contested realities might be seen by some as exemplary of these postmodernist times, this would be an inappropriate inference.

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Section: Mcknight On Feral Horsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contested Realities: Feral Horses in Outback Australia

Symanski

1994

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

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“…Ancestral horses had been absent from North America for at least 13,000 years (Grayson, 1989) when domestic horses (E. caballus) were brought to the southwestern United States by Spanish conquistadors near the end of the 16th century (Zarn et al, 1977;Wagner, 1983). Over time, these once-domesticated horses gave rise to populations of feral horses throughout much of western North America.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community- and landscape-level responses of reptiles and small mammals to feral-horse grazing in the Great Basin

Beever

Brussard

2004

Journal of Arid Environments

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“…Although feral horses have been present in the western United States since the 17th '~u t h o r to whom all correspondence should be addressed. century (Zarn et al 1977), they have received little scientific attention (National Research Council 1980).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-specific reproduction in feral horses

Garrott¹,

Eagle²,

Plotka³

1991

Can. J. Zool.

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1991. Age-specific reproduction in feral horses. Can. J. Zool. 69: 738-743. Two age-specific reproduction schedules were constructed for feral horses (Equus caballus) on the basis of lactation status of 14 788 females captured during herd reduction programs and pregnancy rates of 667 horses determined by serum progesterone assays. The probability of detecting lactation progressively decreased for females captured further from the foaling season, indicating that these data resulted in substantial underestimates of true foaling rates. A third reproductive schedule was, therefore, constructed on the basis of a subsample of 1144 horses captured immediately after the foaling season in June. Characteristics common across all three data sets were first reproduction at age 2, an increase in the proportion of females foaling through age 6, highest foaling rates from 6 to 15 years, and a gradual decrease in foaling rates of females > 15 years. Variability in the proportion of reproductively active females in each age-class was detected among populations and among years within a population; however, the general trend was high reproductive rates, with 80-90% of the prime-age females foaling. The reproduction m$el suggested by L. L. Eberhardt, provided a close mathematical approximation of the observed age-specific changes in foaling rates, providing a useful tool for the construction of reproduction schedules required for age-structured population models.GARROTT, R. A., EAGLE, T. C,, et PLOTKA, E. D. 1991. Age-specific reproduction in feral horses. Can. J. Zool. 69 : 738-743. Nous avons klabork deux calendriers de reproduction spkcifiques a l'ige chez des chevaux sauvages (Equus caballus), calendriers basks, d'une part sur la lactation chez 14 788 femelles capturkes au cours de programmes de rkduction des troupeaux, d'autre part sur les taux de grossesse dkterminks par des tests sur la progestkrone skrique de 667 chevaux. La probabilitk de dktecter la lactation diminiue progressivement dans le cas des femelles capturkes plus longtemps aprks la saison de mise-bas, ce qui indique que les rksultats comportent des sous-estimations importantes des taux rkels de mise-bas.

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Wild, free-roaming horses : status of present knowledge

Cited by 4 publications

References 6 publications

Contested Realities: Feral Horses in Outback Australia

Contested Realities: Feral Horses in Outback Australia

Community- and landscape-level responses of reptiles and small mammals to feral-horse grazing in the Great Basin

Age-specific reproduction in feral horses

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