Blue Wing Roundup, Day 8

The incident began on August 1. Gather stats through August 8:

The figures above are based on the daily reports.

No animals were gathered on Day 8.

Two jacks were put down on Day 7 due to pre-existing conditions, followed by a jack and jenny on Day 8.

The burro death rate is 1.2%.

The burro total includes 338 jacks, 405 jennies and 62 foals.

Youngsters represented 7.7% of the burros captured.

Of the adults, 45.5% were male and 54.5% were female.

The herd can’t be growing at a rate of 20% per year with a birth rate of 8% per year.

A better estimate would be 3% per year, assuming a death rate of 5% per year.

Low birth rates are often associated with the Montana Solution but the Blue Wing HMAs are not on the fertility control list in the latest schedule.

The location of the trap was not disclosed.

The HMAs in the Complex are subject to permitted grazing.

Day 8 ended with no unaccounted-for horses and 255 unaccounted-for burros.

The capture goal for burros has been reached.

Other statistics:

AML: 553 horses and 90 burros, equivalent to 598 horses
Forage assigned to horses and burros: 7,176 AUMs per year
Pre-gather population: 1,695 horses and 1,327 burros, equivalent to 2,359 horses
Forage liberated to date: 4,830 AUMs per year
Water liberated to date: 4,025 gallons per day
Forage assigned to livestock: 9,631 AUMs per year (estimated)
Animals displaced from Complex by permitted grazing: 802 horses
True AML: 1,355 horses and 90 burros, equivalent to 1,400 horses
Stocking rate at new AML: 1.2 horses per thousand acres
Horses displaced from Complex by drilling and mining: Ask the advocates