I didn't even know you guys had eucalyptus. If it's a problem, maybe we could introduce koalas to eat it! :p I love wild horses. I just went to a wild horse and burro auction a few weeks ago (it was part of a local fair.) I didn't buy any though. But hopefully by the time I own horse property, I'll know enough about horse training to adopt one.

The horse is native to North America. It disappeared due to climate change and human predation, then was reintroduced by the Spanish. Mitochondrial DNA comparisons show that "the modern or caballine horse, E. caballus, is genetically equivalent to E. lambei, a horse, according to fossil records, that represented the most recent Equus species in North America prior to extinction. Not only is E. caballus genetically equivalent to E. lambei, but no evidence exists for the origin of E. caballus anywhere except North America." Ann Forstén, 1992. Mitochondrial-DNA timetable and the evolution of Equus: Comparison of molecular and paleontological evidence. Ann. Zool. Fennici 28: 301-309.

Hmmm, aren't humans non-native to North America? Can we sell off excess population to dog food companies?

only pale faced humans

Land Bridge - we're all expendable

Sweet, I'm sending the neighbors to the alpo factory tomorrow!!

See, killing the horses is part of the heritage.

The case for considering wild horses to be a native species.

The House bill to reinstate the ban on sales of wild horses.

Now, it can't be denied that horses were a native species, and that if you use only a genetic basis the category would still apply. It seems to me, though, that "native" is a 4-dimensional concept, it isn't simply geography that plays a role but also placement in time. If we consider only geography then clams would be a native species of the Himalayas. Horses may have existed in the North American ecosystem as recently as 10,000 years ago, and have changed little since then. But has the ecosystem remained the same?

What were the natural predators of the native horses that no longer exist? Which other native species (if any) have moved into the niche occupied by horses since their disappearance? I don't know the answer to these types of questions, but it seems reasonable to me that there is a point after which you are no longer reintroducing a native species to its native environment, even if you are reintroducing to its native piece of land.

(On a side note, were equus lambei even native to what is now the American southwest? In looking around for information all the references I find are to the fossil records being in the Canadian steppes.)

(On another side note, where does the burro fit into this conversation? Or is it just the horses for which sale to slaughter is a problem?)

Even worse. The symbol of the west is a loser species? Bunch of equine losers they are!

:( :sniff: :(