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Location
Mount Berry, GA
Start Date
25-3-2019 12:00 AM
Description
In May 2018, the New York Times published an article titled, “Let Mountain Lions Eat Horses.” The article implies mountain lions (Puma concolor) either currently do or could limit feral horse (Equus caballus) populations across the Intermountain West. This claim, among others in the article, is not well documented in existing literature. As of March 1, 2018, the Bureau of Land Management estimated feral horse and burro populations in the western United States numbered almost 82,000 animals. I will briefly cover the evolution, extinction, and the reintroduction of feral horses to North America, their ecological effects, summarize existing peer-reviewed literature, and the political climate of feral horse management. Based on visits to kill sites from 10 radio marked mountain lions in the Delamar Mountain Range, a very arid mountain range, about 130 km northeast of Las Vegas, NV, a majority of mountain lions do consume feral horses. I will also share these preliminary findings.
Recommended Citation
Jackson, P. (2019). Are mountain lions really eating feral horses? In Gallagher, G. R. & Armstrong, J. B. (Eds.), The Eighteenth Wildlife Damage Management Conference (pp. 45). Mount Berry, GA: Berry College.
Included in
Are Mountain Lions Really Eating Feral Horses?
Mount Berry, GA
In May 2018, the New York Times published an article titled, “Let Mountain Lions Eat Horses.” The article implies mountain lions (Puma concolor) either currently do or could limit feral horse (Equus caballus) populations across the Intermountain West. This claim, among others in the article, is not well documented in existing literature. As of March 1, 2018, the Bureau of Land Management estimated feral horse and burro populations in the western United States numbered almost 82,000 animals. I will briefly cover the evolution, extinction, and the reintroduction of feral horses to North America, their ecological effects, summarize existing peer-reviewed literature, and the political climate of feral horse management. Based on visits to kill sites from 10 radio marked mountain lions in the Delamar Mountain Range, a very arid mountain range, about 130 km northeast of Las Vegas, NV, a majority of mountain lions do consume feral horses. I will also share these preliminary findings.