The Shackleford Banks Wild Horses
The Shackleford Banks wild horses are a unique historic and cultural legacy, as well as natural and scientific resource. Living on Shackleford Banks, the southernmost island of the Cape Lookout National Seashore, the wild herd on Shackleford is related to the other equine inhabitants that live along the barrier islands of the Eastern United States. Historical research documents the presence of the wild horses along the Outer Banks, and that research along with genetics testing indicates that these wild horses descended from an old type of Colonial Spanish horses. One genetic factor, the blood variant Q-ac, is believed to be contributed by the Spanish horses. This genetic marker has been found in only descendants of those Spanish horses. Easily lost through genetic drift, Q-ac has been documented in the Puerto Rican Paso Finos, the isolated mustang population of Montana's Pryor Mountains, and the wild horses of Shackleford Banks, making them an important and rare equine population to preserve and protect.
The wild horses of Shackleford Banks are of great interest to the scientific community as well as to the average citizen. An international expert of equine behavior, D. I. Rubenstein, PhD, Chairman, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University, and his graduate students have been studying and documenting the social behavior of these wild horses for nearly three decades. Dr. Rubenstein has kept a genealogy on the horses based on the dams of each succeeding generation of foals (called “matrilineages”).
In addition, equine genetics experts, including those at the University of Kentucky, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, and the University of California at Davis, believe in the importance of assuring the long-term survival of this unique, hardy group of wild Banker horses, and have assisted the Park and the Foundation in helping to make management decisions to ensure the genetic diversity of the herd.
Horses removed from the island that were found to be inapparent carriers of Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) have been turned over to the Foundation, to be cared for at a state-approved quarantine site. Study of those horses, who have survived for decades without exhibiting symptoms of the disease, has been a source a valuable information for equine disease researchers at the University of Kentucky, and may advance their progress toward finding an eventual cure for EIA.
How to See the Horses
In their natural environment
To see the horses in person and enjoy the rare privilege of watching the horses in their natural island environment, you must travel to Shackleford Banks by private boat or passenger ferry. We encourage you to appreciate the horses' beauty and watch their fascinating social behaviors, but ask that you respectfully stay far enough away to avoid disturbing the horses or endangering yourself or your pets.
Read more at the NPS website.
How to Watch the Horses
Keeping both you and the horses safe
Use a telephoto lens or binoculars to get an up-close and safe view of the horses without interrupting their natural behavior. Horses have personal space bubbles like we do -- but much larger.
Watch from at least 50 feet away (about the length of a large bus). If horses come toward you, move away or, if you can't, stay very still while they pass. Give horses the right-of-way.
You could get hurt if you get too close to a wild horse. You could be charged, kicked or bitten. Horses seem very docile and tolerant but can be dangerous. If a horse stops what it's doing to stare at you, stop or back up. If a horse moves away as you approach, you are already too close.
Interfering with the horses' grazing, drinking or resting can endanger their social welfare and health.
Pets are welcome if they are restrained on a leash. Unleashed pets can impact wildlife and other visitors, and can be hurt or killed by horses.
Horses don't recognize our food as edible. Food scraps can harm wildlife, so please don't allow them access to your food or bait.
Feeding, touching, teasing or intentionally disturbing wildlife, including horses, is dangerous and is against the law and can result in prosecution.
Shackleford Banks
Where the horses call home
Shackleford Banks, home of the wild horses, is the southern-most barrier island in the Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina. The island is about 9 miles long and uninhabited. The nearest communities are Beaufort, NC and Harkers Island, NC. Access to the island is by boat only. National Park Service authorized ferry service to the island is available from Beaufort, NC and Harkers Island, NC.
Read more at the NPS website.
The History of the Horses
The Horses of Shackleford Banks
On the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and in the small villages and towns on the coastal mainland, the oral histories and traditions handed down generation after generation are woven with stories of the wild horses that have lived on the barrier islands for centuries. The elders still say, “They’ve always been here; they were here when our people came; they swam ashore off sinking ships.”
We don’t have any firm evidence that that’s true, but we do know that eastern horses were reintroduced to North America by European explorers and settlers. Records show horses living on the North Carolina Outer Banks for centuries. And genetic research shows evidence of Spanish ancestry in the Shackleford herd. The Banker horses found up and down the east coast are somewhat related to each other as they share a similar genetic base and a history of adaptation to life on coastal barrier islands.
WHAT YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS CAN HELP US ACCOMPLISH
Without your help, the Foundation cannot achieve the goals of protecting the Shackleford Banks Wild Horses
Effect the herd management plan
Continue genetic research
Monitor the Shackleford Banks ecosystem
Expand health studies of the horses
Support the rescue/adoption farm and provide sanctuary for the unadoptable horses
Maintain established links with experts
Implement information and education programs
Establish a mainland reserve herd
Collect museum/library/educational information and artifacts
Complete individual reference records (registry)