Feral horse management can be PR challenge

An ecology prof says the public sees horses differently than other wildlife, which complicates population control efforts

The feasibility of a contraception program to help control the population of free-roaming horses in Alberta’s Eastern Slopes remains to be seen, says a scientist.

Philip McLoughlin, professor of ecology at the University of Saskatchewan, said the program, which is part of a new framework introduced by the provincial government, is a work in progress, especially in areas where the horses are already at a high density,

“But how do you manage these animals?” he said.

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The Alberta government recently unveiled its Feral Horse Management Framework, which is aimed at more than 1,400 free-roaming horses in the eastern slopes of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains. It involves six equine management zones east of the Banff and Jasper national parks, with the largest population in the Sundre zone.

Measures under the framework, such as the contraception program and the adoption of captured horses, reflect the special relationship many Albertans have with the animals, said McLoughlin. Feral horses are receiving benefits not given to wildlife such as deer, moose and elk, he added.

“(Horses are) part of the history and the myth of Alberta, so we’ll put a different value on that,” he said.

“And so, what do we do then? … They won’t be shot. They’re not going to be treated like managing a whitetail deer population where you liberalize the quotas.”

McLoughlin said contraception has been implemented in the United States using vaccines. Doses have been effectively administered using darts in areas such as islands where a large proportion of mares is easier to find and treat, he added.

It will likely be more challenging to undertake in Alberta due to the open terrain along the eastern slopes, especially if the vaccines require booster shots, said McLoughlin.

“The horses aren’t so easy to dart — we’ve tried that,” he said.

“And so, we’re playing catch-up on how to reset our mindset and think about how do we manage this as a wildlife species, and what are the tools that are going to be available?”

A pilot project with the Wild Horses of Alberta Society (WHOAS) used a vaccine requiring two doses at an estimated cost of $1,180 per dose, said a provincial document detailing the framework. Eighty-seven mares received one dose from 2015-17, with 17 getting booster shots and five receiving a third shot, it said.

“Seventeen vaccinated mares were monitored after foaling season and one was confirmed to have given birth.… Terrain, weather and stakeholder capacity were identified as limitations to operational success.”

Research suggests that 45 to 84 percent of a horse population requires fertility treatment for reductions to be noticed, said the document. Unintended consequences in other jurisdictions have included increased dispersal distances of treated mares, potentially making it harder to administer boosters.

A three-year phased implementation approach will be applied under the framework for programs such as contraception and adoption, the document said.

“This will allow for the programs to be established and their efficacy evaluated.”

An annual provincial survey conducted by helicopter found at least 969 horses in the Sundre zone this year, placing the population close to the framework’s Threshold 2 tier of 1,000 for the zone. The limit targets populations at risk of becoming ecologically unsustainable if left unmanaged, with a focus on proactive actions including contraception, adoption and monitoring to ensure they don’t continue to increase.

The survey is being disputed by the Help Alberta Wildies Society (HAWS), which said its own survey found 684 horses. It said the provincial survey team flew 500 extra kilometres this year in the zone, distorting the count.

The provincial Ministry of Forestry and Parks said an additional distance was flown to better understand horse distribution due to recent landscape changes such as logging.

HAWS is concerned about predation by grizzlies and wolves and worries horse populations won’t be large enough to be viable if limits are imposed. However, the ministry said the horses have sustained their population and genetics for more than 100 years.

HAWS president Darrell Glover said news stories published during the Second World War detail roundups involving as many as 20,000 horses, which indicates the region can support far more than is currently being allowed.

“I would rather see no framework and just let the horses manage themselves the way they have been.”

However, McLoughlin said Alberta has changed considerably since the 1940s.

“It’s hard to say that whatever existed 80 years ago, we can just have the same thing here today. Absolutely you can’t, and so it’s a completely different landscape in which to manage horses than it was previously.”

Provincially licensed culls, which included allowing captured feral horses to be sold for slaughter as regulated by the federal government, sparked widespread opposition in Alberta. Although the culls were suspended in 2015, the new framework allows the measure under certain circumstances.

The framework document says decisions about the capture of horses will be discussed with the Feral Horse Advisory Committee, including key populations to manage and effective capture methods. The committee provided input for the framework and included groups such as WHOAS as well as ranchers in the Rocky Mountain Forest Range Association.

“This is one of the unique things about working with horses is (humanity has) this special relationship with them that goes back 10,000 years or more,” McLoughlin said.

“And especially in western North America, it is really hard for us these days to shoot horses in the wild, or to round them up and ship them off for slaughter.”

Ian Mason, vice-president of the Rocky Mountain Forest Range Association, said ranchers’ biggest concern is protecting their livelihoods in an era of drought and soaring input costs.

“We’re essentially the world’s first environmentalists because our whole job revolves around proper environmental and grass management,” he said.

“If we don’t manage it properly, we don’t have it to use.”

Everything on the landscape is managed within certain limits, he added, from hunting and oil and gas to logging.

“And the only thing that’s left as a free-for-all are the horses,” he said.

“And I understand the government doesn’t really want to open Pandora’s box when it comes to that because from the urban perspective, it is a very emotionally charged issue, that they feel that the horses are beautiful and they should live there forever and nothing else should be there.

“I get that, but to keep an equal balance of being able to manage the landscape, you have to manage the numbers. They can’t just be let run rampant.”

However, Glover said wild horses have existed in Alberta for hundreds of years and have evolved into a new species. The narrative that they are invasive animals that can harm the environment is false and pushed by ranchers, he added.

As someone who is part of the Feral Horse Advisory Committee, he disputed the framework’s description of the horses as feral rather than wild.

McLoughlin said genetics research from the University of Calgary has shown the horses are partly descended from horses brought to the Americas by Spanish colonists starting with Christopher Columbus. However, they are largely descended from domesticated breeds such as draft horses introduced by European settlers in Alberta starting in the late 19th century, he added.

Free-roaming horses in Alberta constitute an unofficial breed rather than a separate species, he said.

“This has happened well over 100 years, and all the individuals that are in that population today that are the Alberta feral horse, they’ve never known an owner, they’ve never known domestication, so does that make them wild?”

McLoughlin said describing them as feral can influence public perception because invasive animals such as feral pigs or wild boar are subject to eradication. However, he called the debate about feral versus wild horses a red herring because they are playing a distinct role in the ecosystem regardless of terminology.

“Is it playing the role of something that is … a stray animal or is it playing the functional role of wildlife? And that’s how we need to treat these horses.”

McLoughlin is concerned about preserving biodiversity in areas that have a population of free-roaming horses.

“And how do we understand what role it is playing because it is influencing the food web and food dynamics for all sorts of species, and so if we’re going to keep horses there, at what densities would still allow for these processes to be carried out?” he said.

“We still want migrating elk. We want to have moose. We want to have deer. We also want to have cattle, so there’s all sorts of things to consider when it comes to managing the species.”

As a conservation biologist, McLoughlin said it would be “really cool” to bring boreal caribou back to Banff National Park.

“But if horses are promoting predator numbers, which we know can be detrimental to caribou spillover predation risk, this kind of thing, what does that mean having very healthy, robust feral horse numbers on the doorstep of Banff National Park?” he said.

“Does that mean we’ll never be able to bring back boreal caribou? I think this is where conversation is headed … is the coming to terms with the realities of horses and their influence as a species that’s occupying a food web, and not treating them as something that is completely separate from the other wildlife that are out there.”