North Carolina - Corolla Wild Horses (Not What We Expected)

North Carolina - Corolla Wild Horses (Not What We Expected)

 So this will be a bit out of order in regards to our travels as I still have to catch up, but today’s outing is worth mentioning.

Today we took one of the safari tours to see the wild Spanish Mustangs in Corolla NC (Outer Banks). The Currituck National Wildlife Refuge.

To be truthful this outing kind of shocked us. My gut was telling me we were witnessing the government dropping the ball in protecting something so precious that has roamed the shores of the Outer Banks for over 500 years. So many places we travel to and visit are National Parks, Monuments and Wildlife Refuges, even State Parks that treasure and protect nature and its animals but nothing compares to this mismanagement. 

Now why would I say this since they are protected and they still have some area to roam? I say this because of how developed this area is. How could it have been ever allowed to have one house after another, many of them ugly Mc Mansions lining the beach and interior of the Refuge? Due to the masses moving in even man made water ways were build so the inhabitants can move now via waterways instead of the only other access via the beach by 4x4 cars. Oh unless of course you have a helicopter pad.  

Who ever thought that this part of the United States should be developed must have been filling their pockets. These horses used to roam the whole beach along the Outer Banks but are now confined to an area where they live in side streets, around peoples houses. We saw one horse in the dunes and the other 10 we saw were in crowded neighborhoods. The beach is an highway with traffic going constantly. Insane.

Yes of course we were told they are super protected and people watch out for them. And this was told to us while construction noise and traffic was going on all around us. 

Our tour guide said that most construction started in the 80’s and that he grew up here and remembering it being not being populated. So the horses have been here for over 500 years and humans are ruining it in just 40 years. And what gets me is that south in the Outer Banks the protection of nature works perfectly as there are miles and miles of beaches and marshlands on the sound side that the government protects from anyone ever building on it. 

I admit seeing this today made me sad and angry. I hope that with all this climate change and the impact on shorelines it might even out the playing field soon. My hope is for the horses to survive and get back what greedy humans are stealing from them.

‘Managing wild horses on 7,544 acres of diverse habitat including roughly 700 houses, thousands of people and vehicles presents many complex challenges.’

‘ In 1997, the wild horses of Shackleford Banks found a champion in United States Congressman Walter B. Jones, Jr. In order to ensure that the National Park Service would maintain a genetically healthy herd size, Congressman Jones worked with the nonprofit Foundation for Shackleford Horses, and Dr. Cothran. The Congressman sponsored federal legislation entitled the Shackleford Banks Act. A law since 1998, the Act mandates that the wild Colonial Spanish Mustangs roaming 3,000 acres of Cape Lookout National Seashore be managed at a target population of 120 – 130, with never less than 110.

Although the same endangered breed as the horses on Shackleford, the wild horses of Corolla have not had similar protection. Consequently, the low Corolla herd size poses a critical danger to the survival of the horses that goes beyond high levels of inbreeding. When the number drops below the recommended absolute minimum of 110, the herd is at extreme risk for being completely devastated by disease, drought, fire, flood, or hurricane. They could easily be gone forever. ’