Wild free-roaming (WFR) horses (Equus ferus caballus) occur on lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service in 10 western US states. Little is known about public knowledge concerning management of WFR horse populations. In 2020, we conducted a survey to assess public knowledge with the intent of establishing baseline information that may be used to shape horse management programs and policies on the nation's public lands. We obtained responses from 1 124 residents of the western United States. Our survey asked eight knowledge-based questions of WFR horse ecology and management in the western United States. We conducted chi-square analyses to determine the influence of age, gender, region of residence, and income on respondents’ ability to answer these questions appropriately. Our results indicate that these demographic characteristics had little predictive ability to explain the level of the western US public's knowledge of WFR horse ecology and management (for all comparisons, λ < 0.10). Furthermore, our respondents had little knowledge of WFR ecology and management. Approximately 30% of respondents correctly identified WFR horse origins, 8% correctly indicated WFR horse population size, and 37.5% indicated that they were unaware of legal management options. The lack of basic understanding of WFR horse ecology and management may influence the public's ability to support management efforts or determine fact from propaganda. Approximately 60% of the respondents indicated they primarily used government, university, and organization websites when seeking information. Efforts to increase dissemination of facts on multiple venues, such as social media, websites, and newspapers that link back to government and university websites, could increase public support of future management actions. Additionally, the announcement of management actions, such as round-ups, should consistently include basic background information regarding WFR horse ecology and populations to ensure that the public can make informed conclusions.

野生自由漫游 (WFR) 马(Equus ferus caballus)生活在美国西部 10 个州土地管理局和美国林务局管理的土地上。关于 WFR 马群管理的公众知识知之甚少。2020 年，我们进行了一项调查来评估公众知识，目的是建立可用于制定国家公共土地上的马匹管理计划和政策的基线信息。我们收到了来自美国西部 1,124 名居民的回复。我们的调查询问了美国西部 WFR 马生态和管理的八个基于知识的问题。我们进行了卡方分析，以确定年龄、性别、居住地区和收入对受访者正确回答这些问题的能力的影响。我们的结果表明，这些人口统计特征几乎没有预测能力来解释美国西部公众对 WFR 马生态和管理的了解水平（对于所有比较，λ < 0.10）。此外，我们的受访者对 WFR 生态和管理知之甚少。大约 30% 的受访者正确识别了 WFR 马的起源，8% 正确地指出了 WFR 马的种群规模，37.5% 表示他们不知道合法的管理选择。对 WFR 马生态和管理缺乏基本了解可能会影响公众支持管理工作或从宣传中确定事实的能力。大约 60% 的受访者表示，他们在寻找信息时主要使用政府、大学和组织网站。努力在社交媒体、网站和链接到政府和大学网站的报纸等多个场所加强事实传播，可以增加公众对未来管理行动的支持。此外，管理行动（例如围捕）的公告应始终包括有关 WFR 马生态和种群的基本背景信息，以确保公众能够做出明智的结论。