Latest news with #wildhorses
The Sun
20-07-2025
- The Sun
Tiny Caribbean island that's still a secret to most tourists with famous bioluminescent bay
DESPITE the Caribbean being one of the most popular long-haul destinations for Brits, there are still a few islands you might not have heard of. One of those is Vieques, off the coast of Puerto Rico and while it should be on everyone's bucket list, it remains fairly uninvited by tourists. 5 5 Vieques is a relatively small island in the Caribbean and is around eight miles away from the mainland of Puerto Rico. The island's name is a Spanish spelling of a Taíno and it has the nickname Isla Nena, usually translated as "girl island" or "little girl island", alluding to it being as Puerto Rico's little sister. Vieques is known for its untouched beaches and its wildlife refuge, which is the largest in the Caribbean. The island has over 15 beaches which have both white and black sand bays. Some of the most popular are Playa La Chiva (Blue Beach) and Playa Caracas (Red Beach) which are consistently ranked as top choices by visitors . There are lots of wild horses on the island, the number of free-roaming horses, is estimated to be between 2,000 and 6,000. The horses are descendants of those brought by Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. Vieques is also home to Mosquito Bay, the brightest bioluminescent bay in the world, and holds the Guinness World Record for it. It's nicknamed 'bio bay' by locals and gets its bright lights produced by living organisms in the ocean. To see the bioluminescence in the bay, you have to visit after dark. And for maximum effect, it's advisable to go during the dry season from December to April. There are many tour operators around Mosquito Bay that will take groups kayaking on a glass-bottom boat to see the phenomenon, and it's well worth the visit according to travellers. One wrote on Tripadvisor: "The bay is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen; it shone brightly. It's a dream you have to live the experience because it's unique." Another added: "It was so bright and the jumping fish on the water made it magical. Staring up at the endless sky full of stars was a bonus, but the guides, info and bioluminescent lights were the real stars of the show." Other activities that are popular on the island include snorkelling and kayaking through mangrove forests as well as boat tours and sunset sails. The Fortín Conde de Mirasol is another tourist spot on the island that's a restored art gallery. 5 It's notable as the last Spanish fort constructed in the Americas. If you head up there, it's on a cliff top so you get incredible views across the island. To get to Vieques from the UK, travellers will need to head to New York, to San Juan and onward to Vieques. And don't expect many chain hotels too, with mainly B&Bs and home rentals on the island. Here's the closest Caribbean island to the UK that has Maldives-like overwater villas. Plus, the Caribbean island with UK flights and world's best beaches. 5
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House committee rejects Trump effort to allow slaughter of wild horses
Wild horses in the Northern Nevada Virginia Range. (Photo courtesy of the American Wild Horse Campaign) President Donald Trump's effort to eliminate longstanding protections preventing the slaughter of America's wild horses hit a snag this week when the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations included language in an Interior Dept. funding bill that reaffirmed the protections. Trump's budget proposal to slash funding for the Bureau of Land Management's Wild Horse and Burro program by 25% would have allowed the slaughter of some 64,000 federal protected wild horses in government holding facilities. 'The action by the House Appropriations Committee, in response to our June 11, 2025, letter, to again prohibit the slaughter of wild horses corrects an omission in the President's Budget Request,' U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, a Democrat from Nevada, said in a statement to the Current. Trump's proposal 'would have also allowed for the large-scale transfer of wild horses and burros to foreign countries such as Canada and Mexico, where horse slaughter facilities continue to operate,' the American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) said in a news release. The effort mirrored Trump's 2017 budget, which initially called for a 30% cut to the program's funding and the elimination of protections against slaughter. Congress restored the protections against killing the animals and augmented funding. The House bill appropriates $144 million to the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Program. The measure 'reaffirms Congressional intent to prohibit slaughter and reflects the values of the American people,' Suzanne Roy, executive director of AWHC, said in a news release. Legislation introduced by Titus last week calls for the BLM to employ humane roundup techniques. 'Wild horses need to be protected from slaughter but also from helicopter roundups that can injure and kill them,' Titus said. 'What is needed now is action by Congress on my legislation to eliminate the use of helicopters in BLM wild horse roundups and require a report to explore the benefits of alternative methods for humanely gathering horses, such as employing traditional cowboys.' In the last five years, the government has spent at least $36.7 million on roundups, according to Titus, including more than $6 million paid in one year to helicopter roundup contractors. 'Scientific research has shown that more humane and cost-effective alternatives, like fertility control, are equally effective in controlling equine populations,' Titus said in a news release. 'The BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Program, however, currently spends less than four percent of its budget on these methods.'
E&E News
16-07-2025
- Politics
- E&E News
Appeals court nixes BLM's Wyoming wild horse reduction plan
A federal appeals court has sided with conservation groups, overturning a Bureau of Land Management plan that would have substantially reduced wild horse populations in southern Wyoming as part of a legal settlement with ranchers. The ruling issued Tuesday by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a district judge's decision last year that upheld a 2023 BLM plan to reduce wild horse populations in the region to comply with an April 2013 legal settlement with ranchers who demanded the bureau remove stray animals encroaching on their private property. The three-judge panel reversal of the decision from Judge Kelly Rankin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming once again throws the decadeslong case into turmoil. However, Judge Timothy Tymkovich, who was nominated by former President George W. Bush, implied in the ruling that BLM could eventually move forward with the plan if it revised it to address violations of the Administrative Procedure Act. Advertisement The bureau has struggled to keep populations of wild horses and burros on federal rangelands at sustainable levels. BLM estimates that as of March 1, the total rangewide wild horse and burro population was roughly 73,130 — down from a record 95,114 in 2020. But that's still tens of thousands of horses above levels that do not cause damage to vegetation and soils.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Return to Freedom, co-plaintiffs defeat Bureau of Land Management plan to take away 2 million acres from southwest Wyoming wild horse herds
LOMPOC, Calif., July 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In a stunning win for Wyoming's thousands of Checkerboard wild horses, on Tuesday, July 15, Return to Freedom and Front Range Equine Rescue, along with wild horse advocates and photographers Angelique Rea and Meg Frederick, successfully defeated the Bureau of Land Management's decision that would have permanently wiped out the Salt Wells Creek and Great Divide Basin wild horse herds and taken away over 2 million acres of habitat from the herds. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act by failing to consider whether the agency's management decision complied with the mandatory statutory goal of the Wild Horse Act to achieve and maintain a "thriving natural ecological balance on the public lands." "We have been fighting for southwest Wyoming's wild horses for more than a decade now," said Neda DeMayo, president of Return to Freedom, a national nonprofit wild horses and burro advocacy organization. "Wild horses and the people who care about them deserve this win. "Monopolies over the use of our public lands need to stop. The horses deserve the fair use of the areas designated them under the 1971 Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act without threat. These herds continue to be on the front line in the battle over our natural resources on our public lands." This decision comes as the latest culmination in a multi-year legal battle to protect and save these wild horses and to see them continue to thrive on the public lands as the Wild Horse Act intended. The 10th Circuit entered its crucial judgment, reversing the District Court of Wyoming's decision that had affirmed BLM's actions, before BLM's anticipated start of mass helicopter roundups. The Bureau's plans to start capturing and removing Salt Wells wild horses in August cannot go ahead until the lower court decides what the agency now needs to do to correct its management plan to comply with the Wild Horse Act. The battle continues as RTF and Front Range prepare to face off with BLM over the appropriate remedy for the agency's violation of law. Return to Freedom has long advocated for minimally intrusive wild horse management, with proven, safe and humane fertility control to slow (not stop) herd growth replacing capture and removal as the BLM's primary tool. "Solutions exist to manage to more humanely and sustainably manage America's wild horses in ways that will benefit wild herds, other wildlife and the range itself," DeMayo said. Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation (RTF) is a pioneering wild horse advocacy organization that has worked to preserve wild horses and burros through sanctuary, education, conservation and advocacy since 1997. RTF operates the American Wild Horse Sanctuary at two California locations, caring for more than 450 rescued wild horses and burros. Since 1999, RTF has modeled the use of fertility control and other solutions there that can be implemented on the range. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X, BlueSky, Tik Tok and Youtube. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Wild horses shown trying to outrun grizzly bear; not all of them succeed
Wild horses on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada, are under threat of attack each spring and summer by grizzly bears. It's especially true of foals, which are younger, weaker, and slower than adult horses. The accompanying trail-cam footage, courtesy of the Help Alberta Wildies Society, might sadden viewers when they learn that one of the foals was likely caught by the bear. (Click here if the video doesn't appear below.) The fleeing horses enter the frame at 32 seconds. The bear's capture of the foal is not shown, but HAWS later explained that the third foal shown in the footage has not been seen since the June 20 chase. 'I believe this is the day we lost Benji,' HAWS stated. HAWS, which strives to protect wild horses in the region, has a passionate social-media audience and some followers are emotionally attached to animals that regularly appear in trail-cam footage. ALSO: Tense moments in Yellowstone as German Shepherd leaps from vehicle to chase wolf The top comment on the post announcing that Benji had been lost: 'Poor little buggar! Gets mugged by mares in his herd, and then ends up bear food. Not a fun time for the short life of this baby.' The top reply, which alludes to the mares' rough treatment of the foal in a previous video: 'My heart hurts for precious little Benji. I think he stole it when I saw the mares being mean to him in the first hours of his short life. I wanted to snatch him up and bring him home right then.' HAWS has featured lots of footage showing bears chasing wild horses, repeatedly countering an old argument by the Alberta government that the horses have no natural predators. This article originally appeared on For The Win: Wild horses try to outrun grizzly bear, but no happy ending this time
