Citizen.Coping: Donkey who went missing 5 yrs ago in CA has been caught on camera roaming with herd of wild elk. “I can’t get over seeing it and I’m amazed that the donkey looks happy and healthy!” Diesel knows how to live without the aid of humans. He was originally a wild donkey, "adopted" via federal program.

Donkey who went missing 5 yrs ago in CA has been caught on camera roaming with herd of wild elk. “I can’t get over seeing it and I’m amazed that the donkey looks happy and healthy!” Diesel knows how to live without the aid of humans. He was originally a wild donkey, "adopted" via federal program.

Lost Donkey Seen Living With Elk Herd 5 Years Later: 'Living His Best Life'www.huffpost.com Diesel the donkey, who disappeared in 2019, appears to be thriving with some new companions in the California wild.

TIL: There are more than 50,000 wild horses in govt holding facilities around the country, and 80,000 roaming wild and free. The Bureau of Land Management catches these animals living their life and lets members of the public "adopt" them to reduce the free-roaming animals on public lands. WHY?!

Controversy surrounds wild horse roundups in the Westwww.wyomingpublicmedia.org The first time I visit a government holding facility for wild horses is in Burns, Oregon. I’m thinking about adopting a wild horse – one of thousands that the U.S. government rounds up each year. They...

omg :(

i really liked the people who cared for him- they’re just happy he’s alive and doing really well. they seem to run some kind of a rescue/rehab for animals in the video.

Weirdly, this is kind of in my wheelhouse. I don't know how they do wild herd management in other states, but I was involved in it in New Mexico. Wild horses have been an issue for many years, and it's beautiful, frustrating, and heartbreaking.

an issue how? like with the size of the population?

In New Mexico, the size has gotten too big. I don't know the current state of it, but they compete with other animals and themselves for food. I've seen a lot of emaciated horses in the wild.

They also tend to move into more dangerous areas when the herd size gets to big. This means getting in highways and other roadways and wandering into towns. They also get tied up in/and destroy fences and property.

oh that's so sad :(

Well, I suppose a case can be made that (like the Europeans who brought them) horses are an invasive species in the western hemisphere?

The first search result. "Horses and their relatives originally evolved in North America, before travelling across the Bering Strait into Asia and further west." new.nsf.gov/science-matt...

Horses part of Indigenous cultures longer than Western historians thoughtnew.nsf.gov

Interesting...I hadn't heard that before! Nevertheless: "While North American horses were still present as late as 5000-6000 years ago, they had likely died out before Vikings arrived on American shores around the end of 10th century."

I'm like, "Vikings what now??" 🤭

There are indigenous stories that state horses were part of their culture before the Spanish reintroduced horses, but science hasn't proved horses persisted in North America. The American mustangs are technically feral, all descended from domestic stock.

Mustang population increases about 25% annually. BuLandMgnt uses contraceptive drugs to reduce that. Mustangs often live 20-40 years. They thrive in forest, desert, swamp, mountains, coast. They are on land 24/7/365, unlike permit cattle.

When I visited Nevada for the first time I saw wild horses running in the desert. Truly nothing more beautiful than that. I remember asking my mom if the horses got loose and she told me about wild horses, how there used to be more. I had never heard of horses in the wild until then.

😡

Why. Because cattle ranchers want to graze cattle on those ranges. They pay less than it costs to run the program. And they won't be happy until there are no wild horses and burros on public land.

I feel we NEED a Pixar treatment of Diesel's story. "In the Pixavolt flicks, animated animals transform our understanding of social change by inhabiting worlds comprised of a strangely radical combination of socialist and anarchist notions mixed with odd translations of ‘animal values.’"

We need Pixar Diesel! "The Pixarvolt films proceed by way of narratives about individual struggle, but they use the individual character as a gateway to stories of collective action, anti-capitalist critique, group bonding & alternative imaginings of community, space, embodiment & responsibility."

Pixarvolt – Animation and Revolt – Flowwww.flowjournal.org

Glad he found someone who loves him for who and what he is.

🥰

Animals treat foreigners better than humans?!

Guess they found common ground😀

This warms my heart ❤️

Elk obviously know how to deal with undocumented immigrants.

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