Trailcam photos of some drinking buddies on the Virginia Range.

Small band of Virginia Range mustangs in a residential area, filmed by Julie Deloach.

Now you know what the white stripes on the edge of the road are for.

BLM said today that 295 wild horses had been gathered from the HMA, taking the herd from 429 animals to 134.  No deaths were reported and the number of horses to be returned has yet to be determined.  The post-gather population target is 185.

Captured mares will be treated with contraceptives before being returned to their home range, according to the news release, and the sex ratio of the herd will be altered to slow population growth.

The gather stats included 14 geldings and 43 foals.  After deducting the geldings from the total, the youngsters accounted for 15% of the horses captured.

RELATED: Challis Wild Horses to Experience ‘Thriving Ecological Balance.’

On Sand Wash Basin HMA with HighStakesRanch.

This story was in the news a few days ago but was passed over because the original site was fouled with ads and tracking software.

But this syndicated version by Fox News of St. Louis is readable.

Visitors to the park had been feeding the animals and they became a bit too friendly, so they were removed and put up for adoption.

Hand feeding is one of the best ways to make a horse pushy and disrespectful.

RELATED: Wild Horses in Missouri?, Echo Bluff Horses Featured in Kid’s Section of Washington Post.

Short video from the Black Mountain HMA by John Hynek.  Nice to see the youngster!

RELATED: PZP Zealots Target Black Mountain Burros.

What body condition scores would you assign to these Virginia Range mustangs?

The wild horse population density in this area is ten times higher than that set by the BLM for lands they manage.

Surely you’ll choose 1’s and 2’s, not because of what you see in the photos, but because of what you’ve been told by the PZP zealots and public-lands ranchers.

RELATED: Livestock Notably Absent.

This 46-minute radio segment by KNPR of Las Vegas features J.J. Goicochea, Nevada state veterinarian and public-lands rancher, Greg Hendricks, director of field operations for American Wild Horse Campaign, and Celeste Carlisle, WHBAB member and science advisor for Return to Freedom.  Listener comments included.

How can the ranchers fatten their cattle on lands where horses are starving?

RELATED: The ‘Path Forward’ is Wrong, Livestock Grazing in Nevada.

The population density on the Virginia Range is about ten wild horses per thousand acres, compared to an average of two or three wild horses per thousand acres on lands managed by the BLM.  The aimed-at population density on those lands is one wild horse per thousand acres (to be achieved by the glorious ‘Path Forward’).

Why not ten on BLM lands?  Because most of the forage has been assigned to privately owned livestock.  That’s what drives the roundups and warehousing of wild horses.

The shooting occurred in the Lincoln National Forest so the case was turned over to the Forest Service, according to a report posted today by Ruidoso News.

The wild horses of Alto, NM were returned to their home range a year ago after a judge ruled that the state livestock board had taken them into custody illegally.

The incident follows the Clark Mountain wild burro shootings in California and Heber wild horse shootings in Arizona.  No arrests have been made in those cases.

NPS said there were 22 males (29.3%) and 53 females (70.7%) on the Maryland side of the island in November, according to a story posted today by WMDT News of Salisbury.

The observed sex ratio of a wild horse herd will rarely be 50/50, but how far must it deviate from that value to indicate problems?

The answer must be found by calculation, using basic statistical formulas, where p-bar = .5 and n = 75.  The range of variation between males and females attributable to natural causes is therefore .327 (32.7%) to .673 (67.3%).

The observed proportions fall outside those limits, so an explanation should be sought.

If the observed proportions fell inside the limits, there would be no clear indication of trouble and an investigation would be a waste of time.  The herd would be treated as if its sex ratio was 50/50, even though the observed value was, say, 38/62.

RELATED: Latest Assateague Census Shows No Improvement.

A teenager from Lexington Park has sponsored every one of the wild horses on the Maryland side of the island.  Refer to this story, published today by Southern Living.

Now, can she find out why the sex ratio of the herd is skewed in favor of females?

At the end of the public comments in last week’s meeting of the WHBAB, the Chair admonished the Board about discussing the ill-conceived management plan for wild horses and burros:

“I want to make this perfectly clear that the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board is not part of, has not and do not plan to discuss the Path Forward plan that had been mentioned so many times here.  It was not presented to the board.  It was not presented to BLM.  It was presented to Congress.  And it’s up to Congress to act on it, not this board.  And we will not talk about it.”

Yet the Board’s recommendations to the BLM are nearly identical to those in the plan, according to a story by United Press International.  The number of wild horses and burros on western rangelands must be drastically reduced, with more roundups, more adoptions and something new: Sterilization.

The population target stated in the report—26,715—does not represent the number of wild horses and burros the land can support—it’s not even close—but rather the forage loss the government and its ranching cronies are willing to tolerate.

Whenever you see references in an article to ‘humane management,’ ‘healthy horses’ and ‘healthy rangelands,’ you know you’re being lied to.

Refer to this story by the Daily Miner of Kingman, AZ.  If that means they’ll stop having conversations about wild horses and burros without having conversations about public-lands ranching, then it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

The newly appointed member, who serves in the area of humane advocacy, said there are 50,000 wild horses in federal care and another 88,000 on ranches, according to the report.

Don’t quit your day job, dear.

RELATED: WHBAB Open Positions Filled.