Upcoming Study Will Research Seasonal Movement of Wild Horses

Wyoming by Adam Bailey on flickr.com/CC BY-ND 2.0

What impact to wild horses have on their habitat, and how and where do they move throughout the year? A joint research project conducted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and University of Wyoming aims to gather more data to help answer these questions.

To follow the migration patterns of wild horses, the researchers will use radio collars on 20-30 adult mares, at least 5 years of age, from the Adobe Town herd management area (HMA) in Southern Wyoming. The radio collars are equipped with GPS devices that will show researchers how the herd moves around the HMA and give some insight on herd migration patterns.

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In order to outfit the horses with radio collars, Mustangs will be rounded up using bait trapping. This method involves setting up corrals in the HMA and securing them once the herd has entered. They will not use helicopters to herd the horses into the pens as has been done in some BLM round-ups. There will also be no horses removed from the range for this study. The selected mares will be temporarily moved to be outfitted with collars, then released near the same area from which they were corralled. The horses who are corralled but not selected for the study will be released immediately once the selected horses have been sorted out from the group.

The study is being conducted by Derek Scasta and Jeff Beck of the University of Wyoming’s Department of Ecosystem Science and Management with assistance from Ph.D. student Jake Hennig. According to a news release from UW, the BLM has said it will use information learned in the study to “ensure wild horse herds continue to thrive on healthy rangelands.”

The public will be allowed to view the horses at the wild horse holding facility in Rock Springs, Wyoming, where the mares will be outfitted with the radio collars. There will also be public viewing permitted when the mares are released back to the HMA after collaring. Anyone interested in visiting either of these locations to see the horses is asked to contact BLM Public Affairs Officer Tony Brown at 307-352-0215.

Leslie Potter is a writer and photographer based in Lexington, Kentucky. www.lesliepotterphoto.com

9 years ago

Leslie Potter

Leslie Potter is a graduate of William Woods University where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Equestrian Science with a concentration in saddle seat riding and a minor in Journalism/Mass Communications. She is currently a writer and photographer in Lexington, Ky. Potter worked as a barn manager and riding instructor and was a freelance reporter and photographer for the Horsemen's Yankee Pedlar and Saddle Horse Report before moving to Lexington to join Horse Illustrated as Web Editor from 2008 to 2019. Her current equestrian pursuits include being a grown-up lesson kid at an eventing barn and trail riding with her senior Morgan gelding, Snoopy.

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virginia white says:
March 1, 2017 at 1:04 am
sounds great none will be hurt either. i have a question for the blm have yaw really planned on sending a big herd of the mustangs to the slaughter pens i have read this is true. if so i would love to have a couple of baby fillies