Fertility Control Update
By the Numbers
Total Mares Treated: 1,833
Our volunteers are trading out their sun hats and lightweight wear for beanies and winter layers, but they are still getting out there on the range. Here comes winter!
Team Success!
Volunteer darters and documenters recently met in Virginia City for a team meeting. It’s a great way to keep everyone up to date on protocols and what is happening with the horses, and a fun way for volunteers to meet up who don’t get to see each other very often when they are working on different parts of the range. The past couple of years have been restricted to Zoom meetings due to Covid, but having everyone together again was a treat.
We were able to share some good news and show the volunteers how successful their work is. Darters are reducing foal births with impressive numbers. The program is showing foal birth reduction maintaining at almost 62% fewer foals across darted areas. But we also gave credit to our amazing documenters who are often the unsung heroes - out there scouring the hills and range and verifying what horses are there, any new undocumented horses, and what horses have passed on and are no longer with us.
With all of this hard work, the database is showing the overall population start to tip into declining numbers! And we have definitive population reduction in some important areas like the urban/rangeland interface with the City of Reno where land is quickly being developed thereby increasing human conflicts. We want the Virginia Range wild horses to live long and safe in their habitat and managing their numbers humanely to fit the land as development happens is an important part of that goal!
As the volunteer team continues their hard work, we are beginning to plan work with our partners and stakeholders to look at overall range rejuvenation and balance for all wildlife with wild horse fertility control being just one piece, and one species, of that big picture.