Wild horses at Cumberland Island National Seashore. NPS photo.
Wild horses in a NPS site in Georgia? That may come as a surprise, but they've been in the area for centuries. The annual census of wild horses at Cumberland Island National Seashore has just been completed. How's the park's population of untamed equines doing these days?
Cumberland Island National Seashore, on the Georgia coast, includes one of the largest undeveloped barrier islands in the world. The park is also home to one of the largest maritime forests remaining in the United States, one of the largest wilderness areas in a National Seashore on the east coast, and a herd of feral, free-ranging horses.
So, how do you count wild horses in such an area? You rely on a group of dedicated volunteers.
According to the park,
The volunteer group consists of members who typically participate each year and know the census protocol and routes, which adds consistency and validity to the results. One volunteer has participated for over 10 years. A total of 20 routes are surveyed during the two-day period. Data collected includes the number of horses seen, sex, age class, location, and habitat. Information is stored in a database for comparison to previous years.
Thirty volunteers participated in this year’s census and counted 121 horses. Over the previous 11 years, the census totals have ranged from a low of 120 to a high of 154. While it is not possible to count every horse on the island, the numbers can be used primarily as an index to abundance.
Since there is consistency in the time of year of the census, tidal conditions, routes, survey times, and participants, the data generated can be considered an accurate portrayal of long-term trends in the population. For those wanting a total number of horses on the island, another 50 or so horses could probably be added to the number generated by the census to get a closer estimate.
The presence of horses on Cumberland Island can be traced back to the 1700s, although it's believed the animals likely occurred in the area even earlier, during the Spanish missionary period in the 1500s. The current herd has a genetic makeup closely related to several breeds of common domestic horses, which is likely the result of post-1900 introductions of other animals to the island.
Monitoring of the herd by the park began in 1981, and the staff plans to continue the annual census and increase research to "evaluate horse-related impacts on the numerous island vegetative communities."
Visitors are reminded these are feral horses and should be treated as wild animals. Since these are free-ranging animals, it's not possible to accurately predict their location, but if you're in the park and hope to see some of the horses, the park notes they can often be seen around the Dungeness ruins area.
The park website includes information to help you plan a visit to Cumberland Island, including a map and directions to the area.
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Comments
Reminds me of the "wild" ponies at Chincoteague NWR, Va.
We saw the horses during our visit to Cumberland Island last year (see pictures on the flickr site). They were beautiful. It was wonderful seeing them run free on the beach. Could have watched them for hours.
Thanks to Jim Burnett for bringing attention to the feral livestock on Cumberland Island. Some points need clarification.
Why even count the feral horses? These are exotic species not native to this continent and do immense damage to the island ecosystem. And likewise, the island does them much damage.
While horses may have been on the island for centuries, the early ones were not feral. The Carnegies brought in mustangs from Arizona and released them in the 1920's, and they form the basis of the herd today.
The NPS already knows how detrimental these herds of livestock are to the island, but so far they have ignored their responsibility as stewards of the island's ecosystems.
Your concerns are appreciated,
but let's take a step back and look at the big picture.
Horses were endemic to North America, though they apparantly disappeard from the fossil record before modern times. However, "Absence of evidense is not evidence of absence."
In the 1970s, someone researched, the number of horses imported from Europe on sailing ships, counted the number of mares, geldings (castrated stallions), and stallions-
estimating where actual numbers were not available - then calculated the reproductive rate of the horses, factoring in the percentage that got loose or were turned loose
-at a time when horses were the sole means of relatively fast transportation, and essential for conquest, exploration, and settlements.
Horses that were severely injured, or died in battle, were not wasted and allowed to rot- but the meat, a regular part of the human diet since anatoically moderen humans existed
(or, in some regions, their close relative- zebra and the asses), so similar to beef that it has often been sold as beef.
Even the meat from older horses was used for it's valuable nutrients in stews, or fed to dogs. There was no kibble.
No doubt some escaped or were turned loose, but even old or injured, even sick animals were not wasted -but their carcasses were recycled.
For leather, glue, bone marrow, bone meal (as mills were established) - and dog food. So even horses no long useful for riding, driving, or plowing
were rarely turned loose. Even in death, they were esential to the survival of early explorers and settlers.
Yet from the small percent of fertile (not geldings) horses that did get loose, these slowly reporducing animals* allegedly became the millions of wild horses found in North America in the 1800s,
in a relatively short period of time. *Thorooughbred racehorses, with no expense spared, have a total live foal average (per mare bred) that hovers under 60%.
Feral horses had to deal with winter, summer drought, predators, and other hazards- diminishing their numbers, and adversly affecting their fertility, and the survival of their foals.
The original range of indegenous wild horses in North america's pre-history may not have been present on Atlantic coastal islands. Yet even feral horses can be functional analogs
in the ecosystem to ungulate (rougly, hooved) herbiovores that were present there in te 1600s, but are now gone - filling the same function in the ecology.
Bison, for example, were part of the ecology from the Atlantic seaboard almost to the Pacific - wood bison in most eastern areas; not the smaller plains bison.
Elk is another species once plentiful on the Estern Seaboard that many people think only ever existed in or near the Rocky Mountains.
Grazing ungulate herbivores stimulate plant growth, especially grasses that are critically important for stabliizing soils and sands from wind, rain, and wave erosion.
Ask any gardener about the benefits of pruming. Grazing is a far more beneficial method of 'moving' and renewing grasses than mechanical mowing.
Their manure is excellent for building soil, and the uriine provides both nutrients and essentail moisture to plants in dry climates, and during droughts.
It might be true that the horses were not anoriginal part of the ecology on this island. Yet they are 100% organic and biodegradeable.
Plastics and other synthetic chemical compounds are far more damaging to any ecosystem than wild or feral horses.
v.j -
Having worked on Assateague I wondered the same thing. The only reasoning my brain could come up with was politics. The public would have a fit if those horses were removed and it is also part of the history of the area. There comes a point when the NPS has to decide to recognize the historical and political aspect of the park or focus on the ecological. I know on Assateague an EIS was performed and they found that the island could support about 100 horses without the island being impacted too heavily. On the VA side the pony round-up and auction helps keep the levels down and on the MD side they use birth control. It sounds like they may be trying to do the same thing on Cumberland - count to find out how many horses there are and how many the island could handle.
I'm a biologist and I am all for saving the world and keeping natural systems natural, but I'm also a girl who never got over my love for ponies and I would be sorely upset if the NPS got rid of the horses.
HA! The captcha today is "lookout pay". Great for a fee collector!
Only recently, and mostly in the USA is a love of horses considered a 'girly' thing.
Before the 1970's, toy horses were mostly sold for boys.
Interestig, isn't it?
I would like to do some further research on the repercussions and impacts feral horses have on barrier island systems. Does anyone have leads on insightful primary literature (i.e. scientific journals) that focus on these issues? Any help would be appreciated.
My wife and I just completed visting Cumberland this past weekend. We are both have BSA's in Animal Science and are very familiar with equine nutrition. We also both have master's degrees in agriculture. In addition, we have both been involved in the horse industry since we were children. I agree that the horses have a big impact environmentally on the island. However, my biggest concern is the horses' health. Both of us were disgusted with the body scores or basically body condition of all the horses. Most of them were between a 2 and a 3. The ideal condition score for a horse is a 5 which means it is neither too fat or too lean. A 1 on the score is a horse near death and a 10 is obese. Many of the 2's were mares with babies on their side. During this time the mare needs exceptional nutitrtion which obviously is not provided. I believe that some type of control needs to be implemented. My wife and I discussed several options and the most effective seems to be a reproductive control program through stallion castration. There would be a lot of planning involved but it would not be a long term project financially. I agree that the horses provide an attraction and they most likely need to stay. But, I don't agree with a hands-off operation.
The ideal condition scores you express are ones developed by humans, not mother nature. We have forced horses to live in our world and therefore subjected them to our rules and as a result our domesticated horses suffer from colics, laminitis, Cushings and a host of other diseases. These wild horses have managed to survive by some accounts as to their origin, for over 500 hundred years. They survive in balance with the rest of the eco system on the island. I doubt very, very seriously if they have impacted the island in a negative manner. Mother Nature has a way of keeping things in order...survival of the fittest and adaptation by the species etc. If the condition of these horses shock you, then you would also be shocked by the condition of desert bred Arabians.
Ancestors of the modern horse were indeed on this continent and disappeared ...most likely walking across to the European Continent during the ice age. This is like saying that Native Americans, of which I am proud to be, are not indigenous to our hemisphere because we only showed up here 13,000 years ago.
Horses are one of the most adaptable species of animals and have retained their feral instincts even after thousands of years of domestication. This is combination with their intelligence, has allowed them to survive the harsh, sparse conditions of the island for centuries. These horses, along with the Mustangs and desert bred Arabians and the other wild ponies up the east coast are tough, durable and strong.
One more comment, the mare with the foal at her side. That baby would not be alive and thriving if the dam did not have sustainable nutrition.
Politics is not what will force the herd to be left alone...but politics will surely result in their removal.
Hooray for your comment. Deleting is not what mother nature has in store.
I have not been to Cumberland Island as if yet. I didn't even know that it exists. However I am planning on coming this summer to see these beautiful horses. I wish stupid people would leave these horses alone. This country would not be the same without them. They are in their natural habitat. Even in the wuld there is hunger and death at times, but that is what happens in captivity as well. To remove them would be tragic and to kill the herd with castration would be inhumane.
Why can't yall leave feed and hay for them. I'm sure you can get donations to take care of this. They are wild so I don't think they would grow dependent upon it. It would just supplement their diet.
I am really sorry that you feel like castration is a means of birth control. The only way that will work is to castrate all the males. Maybe you meant that. But that means a total wipe out of the herd. If castration is used and just one stallion is left, he can breed every mare on the island. They you have lost the genetic versitility of the herd. The only way to lower the population is to flank spay all the older mares. But leave the young ones to reproduce. It is known in the wild that mares will reproduce into their late 20s, so spaying them is the solution. Birth control does not work most of the time if they are using the most popular brand.
Shouldn't they be removed like the Trout in the Colorado and the Mules of the Grand Canyon? I mean really.
Why do people always think they have to get their hands into everything. The horses have been there long before you were even born and if you would leave them alone, will be there long after you are gone. Please don't come back at me about the health of the horses and some man made score system that was intended for domestic animals. I bet the health of those horses are alot better then most trapped animals that you keep locked up in stales in a barn on a ranch somewhere.
Horse meat is not bad. Easy answer to the problem.
We visited the island on Sunday 5.13.18. We saw two horses that looked almost emaciated. These would be rescues in the domestic world. Some birth control should be used to limit the herds to reasonable condition. These horses didn't look old, just starved.