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For Sue Stuska, a wildlife biologist at the 

 Cape Lookout National Seashore, it's a typical 

 day in the field. For the past year, Stuska and 

 her team of volunteers have filled dozens of 

 plastic bags with bits of plant matter as part of a 

 nutrients study examining the diet of the 1 12 wild 

 ponies living on Shackleford Banks, a 3,000-acre 

 uninhabited island near Atlantic Beach. 



The "banker ponies" are one of only a 

 handful of wild herds remaining in the United 

 States. And they are thriving. 



If it weren't for a carefully detailed plan of 

 immunocontraception, a form of birth control 

 that uses the body's immune response to prevent 

 pregnancy, the horses would overwhelm the 



island's food and water resources, says Stuska. 

 The National Park Service and the Foundation 

 for Shackleford Horses, a volunteer-based 

 organization in Carteret County, jointly manage 

 the herd's birth control plan, which also ensures 

 enough diversity remains in the gene pool. 



It is the herd's ability to thrive in spite of the 

 harsh island conditions that motivates Stuska's 

 study. "We want to know how they are doing so 

 well in an environment so different from domestic 

 horses," she says. 



The study specifically looks at seasonal 

 changes in the ponies' diet, and whether different 

 habitats provide different nutritional contents. 



Stuska and her team sample 13 habitats 



on the island four times per year, including 

 ocean and sand beaches, maritime forest, wet 

 and dry grasslands, freshwater pond and marsh 

 habitat. Samples consist of any vegetation the 

 ponies are observed eating, as well as any bowel 

 movements the team witnesses. 



The samples are sent to labs at North 

 Carolina State University and analyzed for 

 protein levels, digestible energy and certain 

 minerals. The study won't be complete for 

 another year, so no significant results have 

 emerged yet. But one of the big questions 

 researchers are examining is how the ponies' 

 diet compares to that of domestic horses, says 

 Michael Yoder, an animal scientist and equine 



