Trump admin pushes to annihilate this wild horse herd on 9/11 . . . public widely opposes

[StarryNite]

32. Horses are native to North America

Cattle on the other hand did not evolve in North America and are considered an invasive species by many.

The American wild horse – native or feral? Does it matter?

"In his Reno Gazette article, Craig Downer makes the case that the wild horse is truly a wild, native species. As is widely acknowledged by the scientific community, the modern horse originated in North America around two million years ago. The ancestors of the horse, in North America, go back much farther than that. At least until ten to twelve thousand years ago – horses roamed the lands where they are found today in North America. As Craig Downer points out, “considerable evidence indicates that horses never totally died out, although they diminished, along with many other species at the close of the last Ice Age.” Many disbursed, going across the Bering Strait to Asia and from there they spread out across the world."

"According to Ross MacPhee, a native species is one that evolved in a particular geographic location, and there is no doubt that the wild horse evolved in North America. During the Pleistocene, the wild horse lived in North America from two and a half million to around 10,000 years ago. This is supported by both fossil and DNA evidence. The horse is an American species and is not native to any other continent."

"From a scientific viewpoint, it matters not at all that the horse spread to other continents and was domesticated along the way. In the evolutionary time scale this is only a blip on the radar. The wild horse is a native species that has returned to his place of origin. Ross MacPhee concludes, “Reintroduction of horses to North America 500 years ago is, biologically, a non-event: horses were merely returned to part of their former native range, where they have since prospered because ecologically they never left.”"

https://animalpeopleforum.org/2015/10/01/the-american-wild-horse-native-or-feral-does-it-matter-part-two/