Caballos salvajes
The mustang is a free-roaming horse of
the American west that first descended
from horses brought to the Americas
by the Spanish. Mustangs are often
referred to as wild horses, but because
they are descended from once-domesticated horses, they are properly
defined as feral horses. The original
mustangs were Colonial Spanish horses, but many other breeds and types of
horses contributed to the modern mustang, resulting in varying phenotypes.
In the 21st century, mustang herds
vary in the degree to which they can
be traced to original Iberian horses.
Some contain a greater genetic mixture
of ranch stock and more recent breed
releases, while others are relatively
unchanged from the original Iberian
stock, most strongly represented in the
most isolated populations.
holding areas, kept in captivity but not adopted to permanent homes. Advocates for mustangs also express concerns
that the animals may be sold for horse meat. Additional
debate centers on the question of whether mustangs—and
horses in general—are a native species or an introduced
invasive species. Many methods of population management
In 1971, the United States Congress
recognized that “wild free-roaming
horses and burros are living symbols
of the historic and pioneer spirit of the
West, which continue to contribute
to the diversity of life forms within
the Nation and enrich the lives of the
American people.”[1] The free-roaming
mustang population is managed and
protected by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Controversy surrounds
the sharing of land and resources by
the free-ranging mustangs with the
livestock of the ranching industry, and
also with the methods with which the
federal government manages the wild
population numbers. A policy of rounding up excess population and offering
these horses for adoption to private
owners has been inadequate to address
questions of population control, and
many animals now live in temporary
are used, including the adoption by private individuals of
horses taken from the range. The horse family Equidae and
the genus Equus evolved in North America.[29] Fossil evidence dating to the Eocene[30] Studies using ancient DNA
as well as DNA of recent individuals shows there once were
two closely related horse species in North America, the wild