Posted on 09/11/2018 9:12:53 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
For many vacationers on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, a trip there is not complete without at least catching a glimpse of the majestic wild horses that roam the islands. As Hurricane Florence approaches, many are expressing concern about how the horses will fare during the powerful Category 4 storm.
The Facebook page of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund was peppered with comments from worried tourists and residents.
“Thinking of all of the horses as Florence approaches. ... Praying for their safety,” wrote one concerned woman.
“Prayers for protection from the storm for these beautiful animals & the young foals,” wrote another.
Wildlife experts say they needn’t worry. Wild horses are believed to have first settled on the Outer Banks hundreds of years ago and have survived many powerful storms.
Sue Stuska, a wildlife biologist based at Cape Lookout National Seashore, where 118 wild horses live on Shackleford Banks, said the horses are highly sensitive to weather changes and instinctively know what to do in a storm. She said they go to higher ground during flooding, including the dunes, and head for shrub thickets and a maritime forest during high winds.
“Naturally, they are meant to be outside and they have high ground and they have thick places to hide,” Stuska said.
“Don’t worry about them. They’ve survived for hundreds of years, and we expect that they’ll be just fine.”
The Corolla Wild Horse Fund, a group devoted to protecting and managing a herd of wild Colonial Spanish Mustangs that roams on the northernmost Currituck Outer Banks, posted a message on its Facebook page Monday to reassure horse lovers that they expect the animals will be just fine.
“The horses have lived on this barrier island for 500 years, and they are well equipped to deal with rough weather,” the group wrote.
“They know where to go to stay high and dry and are probably in better shape right now than most of us humans who are scrambling with final preparations. They are much better off without any help from us; anything we might do in the hopes of ‘protecting’ them would probably end up being more dangerous and stressful for them than the storm.”
Must be stunning.
Is this the first hurricane to hit North Carolina or did i slip into a parallel dimension
Couldn’t drag ‘em away.
LOL!
They will be fine.
Rounding up a few hundred and corralling them inland for a week would not have been overly burdensome.
If any wild horse replacements are needed we have an over abundance here in Nevada.
‘Wild Horses’
Rolling Stones (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFLJFl7ws_0
We also had the book by same author, Sea Star, Orphan of Chincoteague. There was a third, Stormy, Misty's Foal and one more, Misty's Twilight.
Is there any high ground on the island? They’re calling for a storm surge of 10 feet and higher. Those horses will have no choice but to swim to higher ground, unless there’s higher ground ON their island.
You’d likely enjoy Black Bess and the ride of Betsy Dowdy then. It’s generally not held to be fictional though.
http://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2009/05/betsy-dowdy.html
I have attended the Chincoteague pony roundups a number of times. It is a major actvity with a lot involved. I was wondering what the ponys there did to survive, but the answer was in the article. There are elevated areas and forests to hide in or on so they usually survive.
There are plenty of dunes over 20 feet high and several over a hundred feet high. The northern OBX is one giant dune field, from beach to sound, it seems hilly as a result. The inland dunes are typically covered with sand oak, live oak and bayberry, which stabilizes them and makes them good shelter for wild animals in storms.
Were you being sarcastic?
Don’t forget the word “wild” as in undomesticated; trust me burdensome doesn’t even begin to describe what a challenge that would be. Wild horses will panic when people mess with them, many would be injured and possibly die in the process.
I would be willing to bet far more would have been injured or died in that process than will be injured or die from the hurricane. Not to even mention the very real possibility of injuries or worse to the people that took part in such a process.
When wild horses are gathered and moved that takes some real planning on the part of those doing it; and it takes many people with experience dealing with wild horses. It is not something that just happens.
Ping to Post #2 for Sir Stuuning Beeber...
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