BLM reminds public not to feed wild burros Aug. 24, 2009 02:00 PM
Associated Press
BULLHEAD CITY - They're cute, they run free and they're often hungry. However, the burros that wander around the Oatman ghost town are getting fat and sick because tourists are overfeeding them.
The Bureau of Land Management is asking Oatman visitors, shopkeepers and residents to stop giving burros carrots, hay pellets, salt cubes and even water.
BLM Public Affairs Officer Mike Brown said the wild burros that live around Oatman are healthier than the burros that hang around the old copper mining town.
Brown said burros can get all the nutrients and sustenance they need from desert vegetation around Oatman southeast of Bullhead City.
Some business owners in Oatman say the burros are becoming aggressive because they are not being fed.
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." — Henry David Thoreau
One time back in the 90s someone shot all the town burros there. At least, that's what I recall. My father-in-law was visiting there right after it happened and was very upset about it.
They are not wild burros, anyway, they are feral, and IMO all of them should be removed, along with the feral horses. They cause untold land and riparian damage and compete with actual native animals, such as bighorn sheep, etc. Congress recently passed another stupid law (aren't they good at that! I guess that's why we pay them!) in support of "wild" horses.
There is a point of no return unremarked at the time in most lives. Graham Greene The Comedians
A clean house is a sign of a misspent life.
Aw, Lizzy, don't you like all the pretty horseys? They're noble creatures because they consent to let us bum a ride almost anywhere in exchange for little more than some hay and a few pats on the head. If only our cats would be so tame!
Seriously, though...I agree. There shouldn't be a distinction between wild pigs (which are routinely subject to deliberate eradication) and any other feral animal with a negative environmental impact. We just let our emotions get in the way. I've heard people protesting the round-up of feral cats in Australia, where they are killing off numerous native bird and lizard species. It's okay to hunt those pesky kangaroos, but kitties - aw, they're cute!
----------------------------------- Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.- Barack Obama
azbackpackr wrote:They cause untold land and riparian damage and compete with actual native animals, such as bighorn sheep, etc. Congress recently passed another stupid law (aren't they good at that! I guess that's why we pay them!) in support of "wild" horses.
The impact of wild horses and burros is insignificant compared to cattle. These animals have been roaming the West for almost 500 years ... the "untold damage" in all that time is nothing compared to the denuded plains and eroded grasslands caused by overgrazing cattle.
As to the distinction between "wild" and "feral" ... you're splitting hairs. Half a millenium is long enough to be considered wild. Besides, that's not really the issue anyway ... the issue is that they are part of the Western heritage, as are longhorn cattle, and should be preserved. The distinction between "feral" or "wild" is beside the point.
There is actually a very good argument for keeping feral/wild burros and horses wild in the west, and that is that horses are in fact native to North America. Horses evolved in North America millions of years ago and only disappeared from the hemisphere recently. They were exterminated/became extinct in North America some 12,000 years ago, but the ecosystem was not terribly different back then. Some Pleistocene researchers suggest that the Spanish reintroduction in the 1500s was one of the best steps to take in terms of bringing back a truly natural, pre-human landscape to the "New World".
"The only thing we did was wrong was staying in the wilderness to long...the only thing we did was right was the day we started to fight..."
-Old Spiritual
My book, The Marauders on Lulu and Amazon
Ahhhh....Paul S. Martin rises again. It's an interesting subject.
Playing the devil's advocate, it seems to me that wild/feral burros would be more suited to grassland areas. However, grassland areas are dominated by cattle ranching in this state. Needless to say Arizona ranchers wouldn't be too keen about having burros/horses competing with their cattle for forage. SE Arizona seems like an excellent area for wild horses or burros (and llamas if I were Paul S. Martin), but the area around Oatman (I believe) is more low-desert, and not exactly evolved to deal with grazing. Maybe they eat buffelgrass? That would be cool.
Don't forget that the animals that roamed North America during the Pleistocene were horses rather than Old World burros. Maybe a horseperson could weigh in, and tell us if horses and burros impact their environment in different ways.
I would also be interested if the burros are preyed upon by mountain lions.
Yeah, you're right about grasslands. The ranchers here would go ape if wild horses were to show up. My cousin ranches in N. Nevada, and I doubt he wants the wild horses in his grazing lease area.
The grasslands here around Springerville are somewhat controlled as to how many cattle are allowed, and they are still badly overgrazed. They really need a break from large-hoofed animals for about 20 years or more to allow the grasses, and the antelope, to re-establish. The grass used to be tall, way back when, but now it is very short, and has dirt around the clumps, signifying continuous soil erosion due to overgrazing.
The short grasses are not good for the antelope, as the herds do rely on taller grasses to hide the babies. The antelope herds here are always stressed due to this problem, and have a high mortality from coyotes, etc., because they can't hide the babies very well. Game and Fish has tried to help, buying several large ranches nearby (Sipe, White Mtns. Grasslands, Wenima, etc.) There is definitely a lot more wildlife on the G&F properties than on the adjoining state lands.
There is a point of no return unremarked at the time in most lives. Graham Greene The Comedians
A clean house is a sign of a misspent life.
JamesLyding wrote:Ahhhh....Paul S. Martin rises again. It's an interesting subject.
Playing the devil's advocate, it seems to me that wild/feral burros would be more suited to grassland areas. However, grassland areas are dominated by cattle ranching in this state. Needless to say Arizona ranchers wouldn't be too keen about having burros/horses competing with their cattle for forage.
To play the devil's advocate to your devil's advocate, could cattle possibly play the role of large, now extinct, ungulates in ecosystems? Obviously not in the numbers we see today, but there were bison, more types of sheep, etc. than today.
Interestingly enough, there are semi-feral llamas out here on the rez. They are used as sheep guard-animals, but I sometimes see one or two just roaming alone with no sheep to be found.
"The only thing we did was wrong was staying in the wilderness to long...the only thing we did was right was the day we started to fight..."
-Old Spiritual
My book, The Marauders on Lulu and Amazon
I doubt that cattle could be reasonable facsimiles to bison, extinct sheep, elephantines, etc. with respect to environmental impact for the simple fact that there are so many of them. They're also not subject to predation like they would be if there were a full suite of predators, and not protected by ranchers.
Like I said, just playing devil's advocate. And predation certainly plays a big role. I'd recommend checking out Russia's Pleistocene Park. Pretty interesting stuff there too...and they at least have some predators up there...
"The only thing we did was wrong was staying in the wilderness to long...the only thing we did was right was the day we started to fight..."
-Old Spiritual
My book, The Marauders on Lulu and Amazon
Burros or Wild Donkeys they are both good in Salami its how it was invented.Harvest some let them pay the cost for rest same with horses,It's protein.I am an animal lover but also feel the real world rules apply.Tough love etc.Bye the Bye the Burro killer was former Mayor Sam steiger Of Prescott .
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