{"id":7205,"date":"2021-04-30T08:06:28","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T15:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/?p=7205"},"modified":"2025-04-26T16:31:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T22:31:16","slug":"national-geographic-wild-horses-and-donkeys-dig-wells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/?p=7205","title":{"rendered":"National Geographic &#8211; Wild horses and donkeys dig wells"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/wh.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7206\" src=\"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/wh.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"799\" height=\"379\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/wh.jpg 799w, https:\/\/sbbch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/wh-300x142.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sbbch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/wh-768x364.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px\" \/><\/a>Humans have a long history of digging wells, but we&#8217;re not the only species to tap the earth for water: New research reveals wild horses and donkeys, also known as burros, can as well.<\/p>\n<p>As described\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/cgi\/doi\/10.1126\/science.abd6775\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-id=\"62\" data-m=\"{&quot;i&quot;:62,&quot;p&quot;:58,&quot;n&quot;:&quot;partnerLink&quot;,&quot;y&quot;:24,&quot;o&quot;:4}\">in a paper published<\/a>\u00a0April 29 in the journal\u00a0<i>Science<\/i>, the animals use their hooves to dig more than six feet deep to reach groundwater for themselves, in turn creating oases that serve as a boon to wildlife\u2014American badgers, black bears, and an array of birds, including some declining species such as elf owls.<\/p>\n<p>Horses and burros, introduced into the wild over the centuries, have taken up residence in scattered populations throughout much of the American West. The wells they dig transform into \u201chotbeds of animal activity,\u201d says\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pure.au.dk\/portal\/en\/persons\/erick-lundgren(c5048775-a565-4c44-b8a1-2a7172eef541).html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-id=\"63\" data-m=\"{&quot;i&quot;:63,&quot;p&quot;:58,&quot;n&quot;:&quot;partnerLink&quot;,&quot;y&quot;:24,&quot;o&quot;:5}\">Erick Lundgren<\/a>, a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark and the study\u2019s first author.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/us\/wild-horses-and-donkeys-dig-wells-in-the-desert-providing-water-for-wildlife\/ar-BB1gbUIO?ocid=msedgdhp\"><strong>READ MORE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Humans have a long history of digging wells, but we&#8217;re not the only species to tap the earth for water: New research reveals wild horses and donkeys, also known as burros, can as well. As described\u00a0in a paper published\u00a0April 29 in the journal\u00a0Science, the animals use their hooves to dig more than six feet deep [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-around-the-campfire","category-public-lands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7207,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7205\/revisions\/7207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}