Red Rock HMA (Nev.) update: 237 wild horses removed from range

/ In The News, News, Roundups

Two mares captured during a recently ended gather on the Red Rock Herd Management Area. BLM photo.

The Bureau of Land Management captured and removed 237 wild horses over eight days in an “emergency” bait-and-trap roundup on the Red Rock Herd Management Area in Clark County, Nev.

Ninety-nine mares, 94 studs and 44 foals captured during the roundup, which ended on Monday, according to BLM’s gather reports. No deaths were reported.

“The purpose of the gather is to help as many horses as possible while protecting the habitat for other wildlife, including water sources and vegetation,” the BLM wrote in a press release. “Without emergency action, the condition of the wild horses in the Red Rock HMA is expected to deteriorate, potentially resulting in the death of horses within a few weeks.”

Water was used as a lure to capture the wild horses.

BLM had set out to removed about 225 “excess” wild horses from the 162,000-acre Herd Management Area, located about 20 miles west of Las Vegas in the Mojave Desert.

The “Appropriate Management Level” for Red Rock has been set at 16-27 wild horses, or as low as one horse for every 10,125 acres, and 29-49 burros.

With 237 removed, the estimated wild horse population of the HMA drops to about 50 horses, by BLM’s estimate.

The BLM said it had been transporting water onto the HMA leading up to the roundup and posted photos of horses drinking from a trough near a dried-up spring. High temperatures averaged 105.5 degrees during the roundup.

Captured wild horses were to be transported to Ridgecrest Holding Corrals located in Ridgecrest, Calif., where they will be prepared for the BLM’s adoption program.