The Chocolate Mountains of California are located in Imperial and Riverside counties in the Colorado Desert of Southern California . The mountains stretch more than 60 miles (100 km) in a northwest to southeast direction, and are located east of the Salton Sea and south and west of the Chuckwalla Mountains and the Colorado River . To the northwest lie the Orocopia Mountains .
32-690: The Chocolate Mountains form the northeast boundary of the Salton Trough extending as a narrow range some 80 miles (130 km) southeast from the Orocopia Mountains to the Colorado River valley. The mountains are located about 30 miles (48 km) west of the Chocolate Mountains of Arizona , but the two ranges are not connected. The range reaches an elevation of 2,475 feet (754 m) at Mount Barrow, and serves as
64-560: A drainage divide for the Salton Watershed to the west. The mountains receive very little rainfall in a normal year, typically 4-6 inches (100 to 150 mm). The predominant natural plants are of the creosote bush –white bursage community, and the mean annual temperature is about 60 °F (16 °C) to 75 °F (24 °C). The range is composed of Precambrian basement rocks and Orocopia Schist with Mesozoic granite intrusions. The range may have been formed by
96-539: A feral horse is not a wild animal in the sense of an animal without domesticated ancestors. However, some populations of feral horses are managed as wildlife , and these horses often are popularly called "wild" horses. Feral horses are descended from domestic horses that strayed, escaped, or were deliberately released into the wild and remained to survive and reproduce there. Away from humans, over time, these animals' patterns of behavior revert to behavior more closely resembling that of wild horses. Some horses that live in
128-596: A closed ecosystem (such as the isolated refuges in which most feral horses live today), to maintain genetic diversity, the minimum size for a sustainable free-roaming horse or burro population is 150–200 animals. The best-known examples of modern day "wild" horses are those of the American West. When Europeans reintroduced the horse to the Americas, beginning with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in
160-973: A distinct section of the Basin and Range Province within the Intermontane Plateaus division. The northwestern end of the trough starts at the San Gorgonio Pass in Riverside County and extends 115 miles (185 km) southeast to the Gulf of California . Major geographical features located in the trough include the Coachella Valley , the Salton Sea , and the Imperial Valley , in the United States, and
192-536: A feral population lives close to civilization, their behavior can lead them to damage human-built livestock fencing and related structures. In some cases, where feral horses compete with domestic livestock, particularly on public lands where multiple uses are permitted, such as in the Western United States , there is considerable controversy over which species is most responsible for degradation of rangeland , with commercial interests often advocating for
224-405: A feral state but may be occasionally handled or managed by humans, particularly if privately owned, are referred to as " semi-feral ". Feral horses live in groups called a herd , band , harem , or mob . Feral horse herds, like those of wild horses , are usually made up of small harems led by a dominant mare , containing additional mares, their foals , and immature horses of both sexes. There
256-463: A region, a controlled population may have minimal environmental impact, particularly when their primary territory is one where they do not compete with domesticated livestock to any significant degree. However, in areas where they are an introduced species , such as Australia , or if the population is allowed to exceed available range, there can be significant impacts on soil, vegetation (including overgrazing ), and animals that are native species. If
288-606: A smaller proportion broken to ride, but simply turned out for a while for any of a number of reasons (e.g., a break in training to allow them to grow on, a break from working to allow them to breed under natural conditions, or retirement). In other cases, the animals may be government-owned and closely managed on controlled reserves. Feral populations are usually controversial, with livestock producers often at odds with horse aficionados and other animal welfare advocates. Different habitats are impacted in different ways by feral horses. Where feral horses had wild ancestors indigenous to
320-534: Is found in the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and Biosphere reserve of Assam , in north-east India , and is a herd of about 79 horses descended from animals that escaped army camps during World War II . In Portugal , a population of free-ranging horses, known as garrano , lives in the northern mountain chains. In County Kerry, Ireland, wild bog ponies have been known since at least the 1300s. More than 700 feral wild horses live in
352-506: Is usually one herd stallion , though occasionally a few less-dominant males may remain with the group. Horse "herds" in the wild are best described as groups of several small bands who share the same territory. Bands are normally on the small side, as few as three to five animals, but sometimes over a dozen. The makeup of bands shift over time as young animals are driven out of the band they were born into and join other bands, or as young stallions challenge older males for dominance. However, in
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#1732771783835384-531: The Misaki pony of Japan that lives on a small refuge within the municipal boundaries of Kushima . These populations manage to thrive with careful management that includes using the animals to promote tourism to support the local economy. Most sustained feral populations are managed by various forms of culling , which, depending on the nation and other local conditions, may include capturing excess animals for adoption or sale. In some nations, management may include
416-761: The Union Pacific Railroad , California State Route 111 , and other infrastructure since 2018. The Salton Trough is a result of crustal stretching and sinking caused by the combined actions of the San Andreas Fault and the East Pacific Rise , particularly the Gulf of California Rift Zone (GCRZ), the northernmost portion of the East Pacific Rise. The GCRZ and the San Andreas Fault both terminate near
448-657: The United Kingdom , herds of free-roaming ponies live in apparently wild conditions in various areas, notably Dartmoor , Exmoor , Cumbria (Fell Pony), and the New Forest. Similar horse and pony populations exist elsewhere on the European continent. These animals, however, are not truly feral, as all of them are privately owned, and roam out on the moors and forests under common grazing rights belonging to their owners. A proportion of them are halter-broken, and
480-522: The foothills of Cincar Mountain, between Livno and Kupres , Bosnia and Herzegovina , in an area of roughly 145 km (56 sq mi). These animals, which descend from horses set free by their owners in the 1950s, enjoy a protected status since 2010. In Sardinia lives the Giara Horse , a wild species which inhabits the Giara di Gesturi , a basaltic plateau in the southern central part of
512-423: The 15th century, some horses escaped and formed feral herds known today as mustangs . Isolated populations of wild horses occur in a number of places in the United States, including Assateague Island off the coast of Virginia and Maryland , Cumberland Island, Georgia , Vieques Island off the coast of Puerto Rico , and Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia , Canada. Some of these horses are said to be
544-660: The 19th century with one, the Mesquite Mine to the east, continuing to be active into the 20th century. The Bradshaw Trail passed by the side of the mountains, the first "euroamerican" route to the Colorado River from Riverside, California . The mountain range is occupied by the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range , an aerial and gunnery practice area used by the United States Navy and Marines . A large part of
576-603: The Chocolate Mountains lies within the gunnery range, and is closed to the public. At the southeastern end of the Chocolate Mountains range are two important wilderness areas. The first is the Little Picacho Wilderness , a 38,170 acre (154.5 km) region of geological features and habitat protection under the direction of the Bureau of Land Management . The preserve has within its boundaries
608-542: The Western United States, certain bands of horses and burros are protected under the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 . There are about 300,000 horses today in multiple land jurisdictions across the country, including tribal lands. The only truly wild horses in existence today are Przewalski's horse native to the steppes of central Asia. A modern wild horse population ( janghali ghura )
640-464: The collision of a microcontinental fragment with mainland Southern California during the Late Cretaceous. The collision is indicated by a thrust fault which emplaced Proterozoic and Mesozoic rocks of continental crust on top of the late Mesozoic Orocopia Schist which in turn was composed of oceanic sedimentary and volcanic rocks. The range was host to numerous small gold workings in
672-488: The descendants of horses that managed to swim to land when they were shipwrecked . Others may have been deliberately brought to various islands by settlers and either left to reproduce freely or abandoned when assorted human settlements failed. Many prehistoric horse species, now extinct , evolved in North America, but the wild horses of today are the offspring of horses that were domesticated in southern europe. In
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#1732771783835704-481: The island. The population is composed by about 700 horses. Australia has the largest population in the world, with about 400,000 horses. The Australian name equivalent to the mustang is the brumby , descendants of horses brought to Australia by British settlers. Modern types of feral horses that have a significant percentage of their number living in a feral state, though domesticated representatives may exist, include these types, landraces , and breeds: In
736-549: The lowest permanent lake in North America. The Salton Trough is commonly subject to migrating earthquake swarms. The Salton Buttes , located within the Salton Sea, are rhyolite lava domes within the basin which were active 10,300 (± 1000) years BP . The Niland Geyser is one of dozens of mudpots and mud volcanoes in the Salton Trough but is the only one in the world known to have moved significantly, affecting
768-516: The native and endangered desert tortoise and spotted bat . Salton Trough The Salton Trough is an active tectonic pull-apart basin , or graben . It lies within the Imperial , Riverside , and San Diego counties of southeastern California and extends south of the Mexico–United States border into the state of Baja California . The Salton Trough is classified as
800-498: The nearly white bottoms of the washes. It is also called the Little Picacho Peak Wilderness . The Indian Pass Wilderness Area is to the north with 32,008 acres (129.53 km) of open space. The Indian Pass Wilderness is a distinctive part of the Chocolate Mountains, a range which extends from south central Riverside County to the Colorado River near Yuma, Arizona. Quartz Peak is the highest point in
832-709: The presence of wildlife species not commonly found in the California Desert. At the southern end of the Chocolate Mountains at elevations from 200 to 1,500 feet (460 m), the Indian Pass Wilderness preserve is located 50 miles (80 km) east of Brawley, California , and is also managed by the Bureau of Land Management. A herd of 25 desert bighorn sheep reside in the wilderness area, along with "the Picacho feral horses ," wild burros , and
864-471: The removal of the feral horse population to allow more grazing for cattle or sheep , and advocates for feral horses recommending reduction in the numbers of domestic livestock allowed to graze on public lands. Certain populations have considerable historic or sentimental value, such as the Chincoteague pony that lives on Assateague Island , a national seashore with a delicate coastal ecosystem, or
896-536: The sediment is more than 20,000 ft (6,100 m) deep. Sources of the sediment are the mountainous areas that surround the trough, and the Colorado River , which in the past fed Lake Cahuilla , a large inland freshwater lake that disappeared after the Colorado River changed course to the Gulf of California. Feral horse A feral horse is a free-roaming horse of domesticated stock. As such,
928-541: The south end of the Salton Sea, in an area called the Brawley Seismic Zone . The Brawley Seismic Zone is an active spreading center that connects the San Andreas Fault system with the Imperial Fault Zone to the south. The Salton Trough is also referred to as a sedimentary basin because the basin has filled with sedimentary deposits as quickly as the basin has been sinking. In some areas,
960-455: The southern portion of the Chocolate Mountains. Elevations within this area range from 200 to 1,500 feet (460 m). The topography, characterized by jutting spires and steep ridges, is quite dramatic. Ravines laced within the range gradually broaden into sandy, tree-lined washes. Slopes and plains are devoid of vegetation, instead covered with a desert pavement of angular cobbles. These rusty dark orange and brown colored cobbles stand out against
992-771: The western side of the Mexicali Valley and the Colorado River Delta in Mexico. At 236 ft (72 m) below sea level, the Salton Sink is the topographic low area within the Salton Trough and is the second-lowest point, after Death Valley , on the North American continent. At 210 ft (64 m) below sea level, the Salton Sea , which fills the lowest part of the Salton Sink, is
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1024-474: The wilderness capped at 2,200 feet (670 m). Jagged peaks and spires are sliced by mazes of twisting canyons which carry water from occasional desert cloudbursts into several tree-lined washes. One of these washes passes through the heart of the wilderness area, giving rise to the region's local name, "Julian Wash country." The area's proximity to the Colorado River and the Arizona Desert contribute to
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