preview

Wild Mustang Essay

Better Essays

ENG 122-005

1 Nov. 2011

Save the American Wild Mustangs

Before there were skyscrapers, before there were convenience stores, and before there were neighborhood developments, our plains and mountains were home to the American Wild Mustang. These magnificent animals are our past, our present, and with proper handling our future. It is imperative that we protect the American Wild Mustang to ensure that many generations to come can appreciate them as we do today. By supporting the gathering, training, auctions, and domestication that the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management conducts we can preserve this heritage. In doing so, we are securing the future of these horses and the happiness that they bring to many …show more content…

Many of these herds are located on the plains of the West. Food and water are sparse. On average a horse eats fifteen to twenty pounds of hay per day. Most Mustangs in the wild are only getting about six pounds of food per day and only drinking twice a day (Lamb and Johnson). Obviously, as in any pack, only the strong survive. This means that the alpha stallion and the alpha mare eat and drink first and what is left if anything is available by almost a rank system, this is called the “pecking order”. With the most dominant eating before the less aggressive, eating last does not leave much for the lowest in the pecking order. Many of these amazing animals are starving to death or becoming ill and dying. The only natural predators to the mustangs are mountain lions, so herd population is not being controlled by nature’s food chain very effectively.

This can be somewhat alleviated. The BLM, has located many mustang herds across the United States. Most of the herds that are being tracked and monitored are in the Western part of the United States. The BLM collects data about the herds that they are surveying. Such data gives the BLM information pertaining to the size of each herd, the approximate age of the herd, and if the herd is sharing land with cattle or other animals. When a herd gets to be too big or is in danger, the BLM schedules a day to do a capture of some of the horses. Not all of the horses are captured; the

Get Access