Posted on 09/11/2018 9:12:53 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
For many vacationers on North Carolinas 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 neednt 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.
Dont worry about them. Theyve survived for hundreds of years, and we expect that theyll 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.
Brought tears to my eyes. And in one section, wiki tells about a foundation raising money to replenish horses lost on Assateague, an island off the coast of Virginia, that were lost in a bad storm. I guess that's where the name of the Stormy book came from.
So some of the wild horses are casualties of storms. There's another large island in the north Atlantic where there many shipwrecks and wild horses. It has been inhabitated off and on, don't know if any people remain now. I got most of my information from one of Edward Rowe Snow's account, can't remember which book or the island's name.
TX a lot Freeper.
They’ve been there for about 5 centuries, I think they’ll do ok.
There do seem to be some feral horses, but they are not wild horses.
save the Raccoons too.
We saw the horses last year. My 9 year is praying for the people, the horses, and the turtles of OBX every night.
LOL
Depends on who you ask.
Had one old crusty prof that had a theory that there were native horses in North America that predated Columbus and had a viable population that bred into European horses.
Can’t remember he guys name now.
Yeah, really.
These horses would graze by the local restaurants in Corolla. Stupid tourists would try to put their children on them for pictures.
Right. I was merely stating a fact. And, as has happened many times in the past, I’m sure; in a 10 ft. storm surge, some of them will be swept away and die. And that’s just part of the cycle of life in our present fallen world.
Glad to hear that. Most of them will probably survive, then.
That’s funny to see this story...
Just evacuated from there. Vacation cut short. 8 miles driving on the beach. Horses didn’t seem to be worried much they’ve seen it before.
They don’t call it “Horse Sense” for nothing.
Plenty of high ground and wooded areas to “ride it out”...might do more damage trying an impromptu roundup.
No food there, no fresh water.
I wonder if the sea water serves as their primary source of salt? Or perhaps they are going for a swim?
In the areas where they remain unpinned, it’s possible to predict the weather by their behavior. Wind blowing off the marshes leads to a large increase in mosquitoes, and the Banker Ponies head for the beach to escape them in the salt air and sea breeze. This is an indication of a storm front coming from inland. So, if you’re in the northern OBX 4x4 beaches and want to see them, they’re right on the beach when a storm’s coming from inland. The reverse happens with a storm coming in off the ocean, they head toward the sound and marshes. There’s typically a big tree-covered ridge just before the sound, a dune really. That’s where they go, run sometimes depending on the severity of the weather. Other animals do it too, foxes, rabbits, stray dogs, deer, boar, even bear in the more remote sections up near False Cape State Park across the state line in Virginia. It’s a very cool place, unlike anything I’ve seen elsewhere in this country. Love it there, but the weather is a very real, pressing thing. You’ve got to be aware of it. Last time I was up there, a waterspout came ashore. No real damage, other than maybe the school of fish it sucked up and dropped on land. The ocean is pretty interesting there too, pods of dolphin are often right up in the surf. There’s video of several shark feeding frenzies up there too, with fairly large ones shimmying up into the shallows in pursuit of prey fish. Whale watching too, not a common thing in the southeast.
I explained in a post after yours, they run to the beach to get into the sea spray and ocean breeze to get away from mosquitoes when storms blow across from inland over the marshes.
Ever notice how the shoreline from Virginia to Florida looks like a category 5 sat there for months shaping it?
May not have been hurricanes that were responsible for some of the scallops in the shoreline. Ever heard of Carolina Bays? Those are inland round lakes. Many attribute them to meteorites.
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