Inhabitants of the Virginia Range

The Virginia Range is home to some beautiful wildlife! Last month we showed you new Bighorn Sheep lambs. This month, let’s look at some Pronghorn that also share the range!

Did you know?

Pronghorn, aka: Pronghorn Antelope, are the fastest land animal in North America.
Both genders have horns but females’ are rarely longer than two inches if visible at all.
This species has been roaming the plains of North America for thousands of years.
Technically the Pronghorn is not a true antelope.
While they are their own unique species, their closest relatives are the giraffe and okapi!

Photos courtesy of Doris P., who lives near the range and is always helpful with eyes on the horses and wildlife in her area.

Shedding!

What signals shedding or building a winter coat? Whether you're a horse owner or not, or if you are a wild horse watcher or not, you may have questions about a horse's coat.

Contrary to common beliefs, shedding is not triggered by temperature but rather the onset of longer daylight hours, or lack thereof. Coat growth or shedding do coincide with temperature, but are not controlled by it. As daylight hours increase in late December around the winter solstice, the winter hair begins to loosen and is sloughed off. Conversely, as daylight hours grow shorter, the winter coat begins to grow. These daylight hours are identified as "photoperiods".

So what exactly happens? The eye recognizes the lack of or addition of daylight hours. A message is sent from optic nerves to the pineal gland. The pineal gland sends out hormones telling the body to get ready to shed or grow hair. The hormones in turn notify the pituitary gland which then sends a message to the thyroid gland, which determines hair growth/shedding. In the winter, there is an increase in the production of the hormone melatonin which signals additional growth of hair. During shorter daylight hours there is less of the amount of the hormone melatonin released. And like the length of a winter coat, horses shed off differently depending on their own systems.

So how do the wild horses get rid of that itchy thick coat of hair that's shedding? Unlike domestic horses who are groomed by owners and can often shed mounds of hair onto the ground and their grooms, Wild Horses are taken care of by Mother Nature, who has given them tools to help. You may have seen a horse rubbing on trees, limbs or bushes, or rolling and rubbing on the ground, which helps to remove hair. Another more affectionate tool is mutual grooming. This is where two buddies will start "nibbling" gently at the withers and move along the backbone, flanks, hips and hind quarters.They stand nose to tail next to each other when enjoying this shedding technique. Through it all, we see completely shedded out coats dappled and shiny for the spring and summer.

By Deborah Walker.

Stallions of Spring!

Spring makes us think of cute fuzzy babies, But range volunteers will tell you that the action is with the stallions! Check out these beautiful boys of the range.