November 20, 2014 was an historic day for the wild horses of Corolla. For the first time in the history of the wild herd, a genetically diverse stallion from 250 miles away was released into the herd. Several months ago, the CWHF Director pulled DNA samples by dart gun from two stallions (offspring of Shackleford wild horses) living wild on Cedar Island. The DNA was analyzed by Dr. Gus Cothran of Texas A&M University and the horses were confirmed to be Colonial Spanish Mustangs. CWHF Herd Manager Christina Reynolds and CWHF Director Karen McCalpin, drove to Cedar Island where the stallion had been captured a few days earlier and tested negative for Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA). We returned the same day and released the stallion on the north beach. We have renamed him Gus in honor of our geneticist, Dr. Cothran, who has been instrumental in providing us with peer reviewed science verifying that the Corolla horses have extremely low genetic diversity. Our deep gratitude goes also to Woody and Nena Hancock who owned and cared for Gus (aka Kenny to them) as well as nearly 40 other wild horses from Shackleford Banks and their offspring. It was a complicated and expensive process to get him off the island, vetted, and into a trailer. We hope to return in the spring to DNA test some mares. If you would like to help us in our efforts to return the Corolla herd to genetic health, please donate. You can go to our website at corollawildhorses.org or by mail: CWHF P.O. Box 361 Corolla, NC 27927. All contributions are acknowledged and tax deductible. Heres to a better and more diverse future for North Carolinas State Horse and a horse of the Americas!
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 19:59:26 +0000
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