Sable Island Horse Project

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Sable Island Horse Project

We now have a fantastic and continually growing data set, as our study is entering its sixth year of whole-island data collection in summer 2013.

Principle investigators Phil McLoughlin and Jocelyn Poissant with their graduate students & collaborators are tracking the life histories, movements, and ecology of the Sable Island Horses. Each summer we have been naming and keeping track of the life histories and movements of every horse that lives on Sable Island, as well as a number of other parameters. We have high hopes for this long-term, 30+ year project to make some significant in-roads into our understanding of how individual dynamics can help us to understand population-level phenomena. The key to our program is minimally invasive sampling, to preserve the natural behaviours of the horses that we observe. Data available for new student projects (or collaborations) includes specifics of individual contributions to population growth (survival and recruitment), movement and dispersal patterns, individual exposure to local population density and s*x ratios, condition, body size for all individuals and ages (from parallel-laser calipers), colouration patterns, parasitology, and for some individuals samples of hair from known individuals to sample for DNA, cortisol for stress (with collaborator Dr. David Janz at the University of Saskatchewan), and diet from stable isotope analysis (with Dr. Keith Hobson, Environment Canada). From behavioural to population ecology, population genetics, and natural and s*xual selection, this project is going to be a fantastic one to watch in the future!

07/26/2026

What drives equine friendships? Our next researcher aims to find out!
Anastasiia Nykonenko is originally from Ukraine, where she did her BSc in Biology. She started her Master's at the University of Saskatchewan in 2020 and soon transferred to PhD. Her dream of watching horses in the wild since early childhood came true!

In watching the horses, she documents social interactions and spatial proximity (a measure of social bonds) within their social groups. Then she can describe their relationships, how social bonds are formed, and whether there are benefits, or costs, to fitness.

Her favorite thing during the field season was recognizing familiar individuals just from the memory and getting to know their personalities, social preferences and lifestyle. 🐎

07/19/2026

Meet our next researcher, Victoria Crozier! She’s from Montreal, and is a PhD candidate at the University of Saskatchewan. Her work explores how Sable Island’s horse population responds to both challenges and opportunities in their environment.

She’s studying how horse density across the island influences gut parasite loads, and how those parasites might affect a mare’s ability to produce foals over her lifetime. She’s also examining what may have driven the sharp 2022/2023 population decline, like overwintering conditions and weather. And she’s investigating how grey seals, by bringing ocean nutrients onto the island, may have helped grow the horse population and whether areas with more seals also support more horses.

Her favourite thing about Sable is definitely the friends she’s made! “If we hadn’t ended up on Sable at the same time, we very likely would never have met, or even if we did, who knows if meeting in a different context would have allowed us to be friends the way we are now!”

📷Olivia Andres, Justine Ammendolia

07/14/2026

Check out our next researcher profile, featuring Weronika Klecel! She is also a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Calgary, and is originally from Poland.

Weronika is asking how does living in a small, isolated population shape the horses’ biology across generations? More specifically, she's looking at how inbreeding affects health, survival, and reproduction in a wild population. To answer this, she's using our long-term field observations, pedigree information, and genomic data, to identify which parts of the body and life history are most affected when individuals inherit more DNA from common ancestors.

Her favorite part of working on Sable are the surveys, because who wouldn’t like to spend their summer hiking in a completely remote and unique location, in search of horses? It feels like fulfilling quests in an RPG video game 😊.

07/12/2026

How does friendship affect fitness? Does grey seal "fertilizer" help the horse population grow? Well for the next few posts, we’d like to introduce you to the researchers that trek across the island and pour through the data to answer questions about the Sable Island horses!

Our first researcher profile is on Aurelia Strauss! She’s a Postdoctoral Associate through the University of Calgary & University of Exeter.

Her project looks at why some horses are bolder or more stressed than others, including how genes, the environment, and gut bacteria interact to shape these differences throughout lifetimes.

Despite the long field days, Aurelia's favorite part of Sable Island is being surrounded by nature, watching wildlife, listening to the sea, and experiencing the island's different atmospheres.

📷Laura Cousineau

07/02/2026

Beyond the beautiful landscapes with iconic equine inhabitants, Sable Island offers research opportunities not found in many ecosystems.

Islands are often called “natural laboratories” because they have clear boundaries, limited movement of species, and simpler ecosystems. The Sable Island horses are a perfect example being a unique, isolated population with no management from people, allowing us to learn things from them that are more difficult to study elsewhere.

One of the amazing parts of this long term research is that we can survey the entire horse population. To do this, researchers walk the length of the island multiple times, annually. No estimates or sampling needed, this is complete population data. It’s rare in wildlife research to follow every single individual throughout their lives, adding to the many reasons the Sable Island horses are so special!

Photos and videos by Alex Grant and Aurelia Strauss.

05/31/2026

Officially launching the Sable Island Horse Projects Instagram! We will to share some insights, experiences, and information on the long-term research project. Come connect with this unique, remote landscape and the fascinating population of horses who have roamed since the 1700s.

Stay tuned for more updates!

05/24/2026

Last year, Parks Canada shared this wonderful post with our research team in action! Many long hours were spent hiking the dunes looking for every band, collecting f***l samples, and processing everything back at Main Station. The team usually includes folks at every level, from undergraduate students, masters and PhD researchers, post-doctoral researchers, all the way to Phil and Jocelyn leading the charge as the Principle Investigators.

The team will be out again in July and August for the annual data collection and we are excited to see the new additions to the population.

05/08/2026

🐴 Hello Sable Island Horse Project enthusiasts!🐴

The McLoughlin Lab is looking to revive our page by sharing some fun photos and updates from the research team on a regular basis! This long-term research has been ongoing since 2007, marking 19 years of dedicated effort on the project.

We hope you'll join us as we continue to learn more about these unique equines and their life on Sable Island. Stay tuned!

Photo credit: Alex Grant

09/23/2018

This three part documentary includes some footage from Sable Island in January and interviews with Dr. Philip McLoughlin, PI of the Sable Island Horse Project. Looks Amazing!

01/09/2018

These shots are from the wonderful winter episode of "Wild Canadian Year" that was shot last January. We do agree that Sable Island is one of the most beautiful and unique places!

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Halifax, NS

Website

https://www.mcloughlinlab.ca/research/sable-island-horse-project/, https://sites.google.com/site/jocelynpoissant/study-s

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