President Nixon noted that America’s wild horses and burros were 99% extinct when he signed the WHB Act into law in 1971.
Today, the current population of 95,000 puts those animals at 95% extinct.
The ‘Path Forward,’ a plan for achieving and maintaining an AML of 27,000, will leave them very close to 99% extinct.
Achieving and maintaining an AML of 27,000 will mean areas set aside for wild horses and burros are managed primarily for cattle and sheep.
Achieving a true AML of 135,000 would mean those same areas are managed primarily for wild horses and burros, as Congress and the President intended in 1971.
Restoring lands known as Herd Areas would mean the number could go even higher.
A population of 200,000 would mean the horses and burros are 90% extinct.
Here’s how to compute it:
Percent extinct = (1 − Current population ÷ Peak population) × 100
where the peak population is 2,000,000.
RELATED: Ninety Nine Percent Extinct.
