CRITTERS OF NORTH IDAHO: Appaloosa

Every state has its symbols, and Idaho is no exception. Our state fish is the cutthroat trout. Our state flower is Lewis’ mock-orange. Our state bird? That’s going to be the mountain bluebird. What about our state mammal? That title goes to the Appaloosa horse (Equus ferus caballus). Unlike the normal cast of critters we cover here, the Appaloosa horse is not truly wild, and not native to Idaho. In fact, no modern horses are native to anywhere in the New World, including the famous “wild” mustangs of the American southwest. Thousands of years ago, truly wild horses once roamed the plains of North America alongside mammoths, ground sloths, mastodons and saber-toothed cats. Appaloosas are not the descendants of these Ice Age horses, as they and many other Ice Age animals were sent into extinction by severe climate changes that characterized the end of the Ice Age.