Photo by Neil Caudle 



Adapted from map by Daniel Rubenstein 



Shackleford horses, like the three 

 youngsters above, leave their natal 

 herds when they are ready to 

 breed. Map at right shows the 

 island's social organization before 

 the takeover of 1980. Four harem- 

 masters kept territories in the 

 grassy eastern end, while bachelor 

 groups and two roving harems 

 shared the island's center. 



He thinks the territories came about because they 

 served the interests of the herd. And Rubenstein has 

 found that the quality of life in the territories is ac- 

 tually better in some ways than the life outside. He 

 explains why by pointing to features in Shackleford's 

 environment. 



Shackleford is a narrow barrier island running 

 west to east for about IOV2 miles. On the eastern end, 

 under the sweep of Cape Lookout's lighthouse beam, 

 a broad, grassy swale rolls back from the dunes, 

 pocked with holes containing rainwater, until it 

 reaches the salt-marsh flats on the island's sound 

 side. This eastern end is open, easy to patrol. Four 

 herds made their home there, never leaving. Even 

 when stampeded and driven away, the herds quickly 

 re-settled their home turf. On many a stormy night, 

 Rubenstein has watched them huddle together 

 behind a dune or a fishing shack, unwilling to leave 



their territory, even for sheltering trees just a few 

 miles away. 



Why are the territories so important? Rubenstein 

 believes that, by defending large areas of resources, a 

 stallion can increase the size of his harem, secure bet- 

 ter grazing sites for the females in his herd, and help 

 ensure that he fathers more offspring. 



Grass grew longer in the territories. Rubenstein 

 has reported that the horses there seemed to dis- 

 cipline their grazing — cropping one area at a time, 

 allowing new grass to establish itself. 



But on Shackleford's western end, high dunes and 

 maritime forest break the landscape into clumps of 

 vegetation too small to manage or defend for the 

 sake of a large herd. Here was a kind of netherland of 

 bachelors, outcasts and lone mares, running in small 

 bands, disbanding to form new groups, scuffling over 

 Continued on next page 



