Protected Wild Burros In Danger of Extinction - Page 2

Since 1971 wild burros have gone from being "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the west" to exotic feral animals that are interfering with the natural order. It's interesting how this wasn't considered a problem until a few years ago when a move was made by big game hunters in North America to reintroduce the Desert Big horn sheep into the same areas that burros were already grazing.

While it's despicable in the first place to re-introduce an animal into the wild just so you can hunt it, displacing another animal and calling it "Wild Life Management" is hypocrisy of the highest order. What's been happening is a smear campaign that would be worthy of any dis-information program run by the current administration. First, start referring to the burros as feral and exotic instead of wild so it sounds like they were a recently introduced species instead of having been here longer than almost all breeds of domestic cattle.

Like the horse, the burro was re-introduced to North America in the 15th and 16th century with the arrival of the Spanish. The burro was especially adaptable to the climate of the Southern United States and Mexico, as the breed that came with the Spanish had originated in North Africa. Not only does it require minimal amounts of water for survival, it can also obtain most of its required water from the scrub brush that makes up the majority of its diet.

Like horses, burros were at various points in time released into the wild and then vanished into the wilderness that could support little other wildlife. It's only been since another introduced creature — man — wanted to make use of its habitat that the burro became a "Wild Life Management" issue. Unlike horses, they weren't even a concern for cattle ranchers because they lived in territories that couldn't sustain cattle.

Once state governments became aware of just how potentially lucrative the Big Horn Sheep hunt could be, (with licenses fetching up to $100,000 each at auctions), burros became a nuisance creature that needed to be dealt with. All of a sudden we hear they are a threat to water supplies, their populations are too high, and they are a threat to the precious Big Horn Sheep gold mine.

What's even more disquieting is that many of the Big Horn Sheep are being introduced into areas where there was no prior sheep population. In fact the Arizona Desert Big Horn Sheep Society boasts that over 1,000 animals have been introduced and have established viable populations in ten mountain ranges where they didn't previously exist.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the forthcoming book What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

Visit Richard Marcus's author page — Richard Marcus's Blog