Heat wave on NC’s Outer Banks is driving wild horses into the ocean, photos show
A heat wave is peaking on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, challenging long-standing temperature records, and sending the wild horses into the ocean for relief, officials say.
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Temperatures near 100 degrees were expected Thursday on some of the barrier islands, with a “dangerous” heat index of 110 degrees, the National Weather Service reported Sept 3. The heat index is how hot it feels when humidity is taken into account.
The nonprofit Corolla Wild Horse Fund reports the wild herd it tends has been seen wading in the Atlantic for relief from the heat.
“No, this is not normal for this time of year and we are all (humans and horses!) over it,” herd manager Meg Puckett wrote in a Facebook post. “The biting flies are also horrendous.”
The salt water is not only cooling, but it’s a natural bug repellant, experts say.
Extreme heat is hard on the horses, particularly the older ones, experts say. In 2021, a 10-year-old stallion died of heat stroke while struggling for “several hours” to free itself from a tangle of wire, the fund reported.
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The timing of the heatwave is problematic, because it coincides with the three-day Labor Day weekend.
Tourists will be staking their claim to the beaches during the holiday weekend, and that will cause the horses to retreat back to the dunes.
A county ordinance requires humans to stay 50 feet from the horses, but the law is frequently violated by people seeking selfies with the horses. Such proximity is dangerous, because the horses are known to kick, bite and charge.
“The crowds are already starting to build. … Don’t crowd the horses and make them move more than they naturally have to,” the fund wrote. “Please give them plenty of space so they can stay as cool and comfortable as possible the next few days.”
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Corolla is about a 225-mile drive northeast from downtown Raleigh.
