Gather stats indicate 128 jacks were removed from the HMA, along with 56 jennies, for a total of 184 wild burros. Four foals were also captured but their gender was not given.
Seventy percent were males, thirty percent were females.
Do those numbers look like they came from a herd where males and females are evenly distributed? The range of variation in these values attributable to natural causes can be found from some basic statistical formulas, where p = .50 and n = 184.
The following chart shows the range between jacks and jennies is larger than expected.
Why would there be an assignably high number of males in the traps (or assignably low number of females)?
Are males and females evenly distributed in the herd? If not, why?
Were there riders in the field steering the jacks toward the traps? Do jennies have an innate ability to see danger ahead and move away?
What else could skew the results?
If 60% of the captured animals were male and 40% were female, you’d be wasting your time trying to explain the difference, because those results fall within the limits.
RELATED: Seven Troughs Gather Complete.
Western Horse Watchers Association 