Wild Horse and Burro Research

Research Task: BB00AKF.5.0
Task Manager: Butch Roelle

Wild horse populations often increase at high rates on U.S. western rangelands, which in turn can lead to habitat degradation. The U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Land Management are cooperating on studies investigating the potential of fertility control drugs to reduce foaling rates. In addition, because nearly every management issue concerning wild horses depends on accurate herd counts, USGS and BLM are testing several techniques that could improve population estimates and provide defensible error estimates (confidence limits).

 For more information contact Butch Roelle

Related Products

Publications

• Detection probability in aerial surveys of feral horses
• Population ecology of feral horses in an era of fertility control management
• A collaborative approach for estimating terrestrial wildlife abundance
• Foaling rates in feral horses treated with the immunocontraceptive porcine zona pellucida
• Influences of immunocontraception on time budgets, social behavior, and body condition in feral horses
• Demography of the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses, 1993-2007
• Validating aerial photographic mark–recapture for naturally marked feral horses
• Understanding the influences of immunocontraception of equids through competing models of behavior
• Quantifying equid behavior--A research ethogram for free-roaming feral horses
• Injection-site reactions in wild horses (Equus caballus) receiving an immunocontraceptive vaccine
• Influences of immunocontraception on intraband social behavior in free-ranging feral horses, Equus caballus