LAS VEGAS – Eleven wild horses died during a roundup near Tonopah that concluded on Monday.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said it gathered 638 wild horses and sent 432 “excess” wild horses and 100 burros to facilities to prepare them for adoption.
Of the 11 horses that died, 10 deaths were classified as “chronic,” along with one sudden “acute” death.
The horses are on rangeland that cannot support the number of animals that are already there, officials said. Severe drought has contributed to problems with food and water supplies for the horses.
The roundup began in mid-December on the Nevada Test and Training Range, on land controlled by Nellis Air Force Base about 30 miles east of Tonopah.
The BLM on Thursday announced plans for its next roundup, beginning Jan. 10 at the “Pancake Complex,” about 80 miles northeast of Tonopah. That roundup is expected to gather about three times more wild horses than the roundup that just concluded.
Of the horses that were gathered, 62 stallions were released back onto the range, and 133 mares are being treated with a birth control vaccine called GonaCon Equine. The mares will be released in 30 days after they are given a second dose, according to the BLM.
The other wild horses were taken to the Palomino Valley Wild Horse and Burro Off-range Corrals located near Reno, and the excess wild burros were taken to the Axtell, Utah, BLM Off-Range Wild Horse and Burro Corrals. Wild horses and burros not adopted or sold “will be placed in long-term pastures where they will be humanely cared for and retain their ‘wild’ status and protection under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act,” according to the BLM.
For more information, go to the FY2022 Nevada Wild Horse Range Herd Management Area Wild Horse and Burro Gather web page.
