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| A wild mare starts to run after being hit with a dart by herd manager Steve Rogers. CHRIS CURRY/THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT |
By JEFF HAMPTON, The Virginian-Pilot © June 3, 2007 | Last updated 8:37 PM Jun. 2
Corolla wild horse herd manager Steve Rogers crept to within 10 feet of a black mare grazing in a wax myrtle thicket.
A stallion stood nearby pawing the ground, agitated over the intruder.
Using an air-powered pistol, Rogers fired a dart into the mare's rear hip, injecting a chemical that prevents pregnancy. The mare bolted a few steps away while the stallion snorted and high- stepped alongside her.
"That stallion was miffed," Rogers said. "He doesn't know what's going on. He just knows something's going on around his harem."
Rogers picked up the discarded dart - which hits and pops back out - and walked back toward his truck. Seven mares vaccinated in two weeks, a few more than 50 to go, and it's the day after Memorial Day. The rest will have to wait until the fall, after tourist season ends, he said.
Corolla wild horses, one of Currituck County's biggest attractions, are so healthy and flourishing that herd managers are turning to birth control for the first time. Adoptions are not reducing the herd fast enough.
The herd has grown to about 100 horses, well beyond the limit of 60 individuals set by a management plan signed by officials with Currituck County, the Currituck National Wildlife Refuge and the Corolla Wild Horse Fund.
Too many wild horses strains the refuge environment, according to the plan. Seven new foals have been born so far this year, adding to 25 born last year.
A number of mares, some 20 years old, are pregnant. Robust stallions regularly challenge each other over new young mares.
"They are so incredibly adaptable," said Karen McCalpin, executive director of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund. "They're survival machines. They're not just surviving, they're thriving."
Last summer the herd reached about 120 horses, double the management plan restrictions. It's tough to be exact with small groups roaming through communities of beach homes surrounded by 12,000 acres of dunes and maritime forests.
 Herd manager Steve Rogers injects a dart with an immunocontraceptive last week. The Currituck National Wildlife Refuge donates the equipment. Chris Curry/The Virginian-Pilot |
An aggressive adoption effort has decreased the herd by 12. Another seven are set to be adopted soon. Eight others either died of natural causes or were transferred from the Currituck Outer Banks to other sites.
Rogers vaccinated the mares with porcine zona pellucida, or PZP, a birth control chemical that must be administered annually. At first, the focus will be on aging or very young mares, recording each one on a database.
The Currituck National Wildlife Refuge donated the gun and equipment. The Corolla Wild Horse Fund buys the PZP as needed at $21 per dose. The drug has been used successfully in more than 50 mammal species.
Assateague Island National Seashore managers have vaccinated wild horses there annually using PZP since 1994, park spokesman Carl Zimmerman said.
"We reached zero population growth within two years," he said.
McAlpin plans to have a study done on the capacity of the northern Outer Banks. It could be that the herd can be much larger than 60 without negative effects on the environment, she said.
Genetic tests have shown the Corolla wild horses likely descended from Spanish mustangs that arrived with explorers some 400 to 500 years ago.
Businesses run tours to the four-wheel drive area with the promise of seeing them. The real estate industry rents beach homes advertising wild horses. T-shirts, prints and caps sell briskly. When a small herd goes to the ocean side to escape biting flies, crowds soon gather to watch.
Currituck ordinances call for people to stay at least 50 feet away, but many ignore the rule. Fences from sound to ocean block the horses from roaming into Virginia to the north or into Corolla to the south. A few horses manage to escape once in a while and must be rounded up and returned.
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