The Bureau of Land Management rounded up more than 1,000 wild horses in the Diamond Mountain Range in the month of September.
The multi-day effort began on Sept. 10 and took place north of Eureka, Nevada. Overall, it covered more than 282,000 acres of public and private land.
In total, 1,196 wild horses were gathered and 1,139 were removed from the wild. There are still 300 wild horses on the range after 43 of those gathered were released back into the wild. The 21 mares re-released were all given a fertility control vaccine. The other horses will go into the BLM’s adoption and sale program.
“By balancing herd size with what the land can support, the BLM aims to protect habitat for other wildlife species such as sage grouse, pronghorn antelope and mule deer,” a news release stated. “Removing excess animals will enable significant progress toward achieving the Standards for Rangeland Health identified by the Northeastern Great Basin Resource Advisory Council.”