ASSATEAGUE HORSES

Assateague is a barrier island about a quarter of a mile off the coast of Maryland and Virginia. It’s home to herd of wild horses. No one really knows how they first came here, but according to one legend, the horses swam ashore from a Spanish galleon that had run aground. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History.

“Feral is a term that applies to any animal that has gone quote ‘wild.'”

David Powell is a Principal Researcher with the Earthwatch Institute. He tells us that, while the horses may once have been domesticated, they’ve spent the last 300 years running freely on Assateague Island.

“And so What we see as far as differences between feral horses from domestic horses is that these feral horses are not readily approachable and they actually revert back to a more natural social organization. We see them demonstrating a whole range of social behaviors that you don’t necessarily see in a domestic horse. Domestic horses are rarely kept actually in social groups. And so their behavioral repertoire is limited. These wild horses you see just what you would see if you were going to study zebra in Africa because zebra are close relatives to the horses. They’re just a more natural horse if you will. We know that if you take a domestic horse and put it on Assateague, it’s dead within two years. It can’t survive the harsh habitat. If you take an Assateague horse off the island and feed it a domestic horse diet, it grows to be a whole lot larger than it would on the island. So that tells us that these feral horses have special adaptations to their habitat which domestic horses don’t have.”

This month is breeding season for the horses of Assateague Island.

Pulse of the Planet is presented by the American Museum of Natural History. Additional funding for this series has been provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

ASSATEAGUE HORSES

The wild horses of Assateague are uniquely suited for their island habitat.
Air Date:06/10/1999
Scientist:
Transcript:

Assateague is a barrier island about a quarter of a mile off the coast of Maryland and Virginia. It's home to herd of wild horses. No one really knows how they first came here, but according to one legend, the horses swam ashore from a Spanish galleon that had run aground. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History.

"Feral is a term that applies to any animal that has gone quote 'wild.'"

David Powell is a Principal Researcher with the Earthwatch Institute. He tells us that, while the horses may once have been domesticated, they've spent the last 300 years running freely on Assateague Island.

"And so What we see as far as differences between feral horses from domestic horses is that these feral horses are not readily approachable and they actually revert back to a more natural social organization. We see them demonstrating a whole range of social behaviors that you don't necessarily see in a domestic horse. Domestic horses are rarely kept actually in social groups. And so their behavioral repertoire is limited. These wild horses you see just what you would see if you were going to study zebra in Africa because zebra are close relatives to the horses. They're just a more natural horse if you will. We know that if you take a domestic horse and put it on Assateague, it's dead within two years. It can't survive the harsh habitat. If you take an Assateague horse off the island and feed it a domestic horse diet, it grows to be a whole lot larger than it would on the island. So that tells us that these feral horses have special adaptations to their habitat which domestic horses don't have."

This month is breeding season for the horses of Assateague Island.

Pulse of the Planet is presented by the American Museum of Natural History. Additional funding for this series has been provided by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.