https://gizmodo.com/australia-plans-to-k...1847989351
EXCERPTS: . . . Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales is home to an estimated 14,380 wild horses. The large herbivores, with their hard hooves, trample the delicate vegetation and disturb the landscape. For this is kangaroo and wallaby country—not horse country—so the local ecosystem suffers as a result.
As they roam free, the thousands of feral horses, known as brumbies to Australians, send cascading waves of despair through the ecosystem, threatening stocky galaxias fish, alpine tree frogs, Riek’s crayfish, broad-toothed rats, among many other native species. Should nothing be done about the brumbies, their numbers could reach upwards of 20,000 in the park by 2022, according to an open letter sent to NSW environment minister Matt Kean late last month.
The letter, penned by 15 scientists and signed by 69 supportive researchers and scientific societies, argues that a newly revised government plan to cull 10,000 wild horses doesn’t go far enough, as it would still allow 3,000 horses to inhabit one-third of the park. These horses would continue to threaten endangered species and the local ecology as a whole, the scientists argue [...] Most horses will be shot from the ground, but some will be relocated to other areas.
The decision to retain so many horses has to do with the animals’ perceived heritage value, which stems from “pioneering history and pastoralism,” “traditional mountain practices [...],” ... and also “legends, stories and myths of the Snowy Mountains,” according to the plan. Also, specific types of wild horses are deemed to have heritage value...
[...] The 2016 draft management plan called for an eventual population of roughly 600 horses, but as the Sydney Morning Herald reported last month, the government seems to have been swayed by “community groups eager to promote the horses’ heritage value.”
The authors of the open letter are questioning the need to retain so many wild horses in the park, especially given that conservationists will now have to continually kill these horses to keep the growing population in check... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: . . . Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales is home to an estimated 14,380 wild horses. The large herbivores, with their hard hooves, trample the delicate vegetation and disturb the landscape. For this is kangaroo and wallaby country—not horse country—so the local ecosystem suffers as a result.
As they roam free, the thousands of feral horses, known as brumbies to Australians, send cascading waves of despair through the ecosystem, threatening stocky galaxias fish, alpine tree frogs, Riek’s crayfish, broad-toothed rats, among many other native species. Should nothing be done about the brumbies, their numbers could reach upwards of 20,000 in the park by 2022, according to an open letter sent to NSW environment minister Matt Kean late last month.
The letter, penned by 15 scientists and signed by 69 supportive researchers and scientific societies, argues that a newly revised government plan to cull 10,000 wild horses doesn’t go far enough, as it would still allow 3,000 horses to inhabit one-third of the park. These horses would continue to threaten endangered species and the local ecology as a whole, the scientists argue [...] Most horses will be shot from the ground, but some will be relocated to other areas.
The decision to retain so many horses has to do with the animals’ perceived heritage value, which stems from “pioneering history and pastoralism,” “traditional mountain practices [...],” ... and also “legends, stories and myths of the Snowy Mountains,” according to the plan. Also, specific types of wild horses are deemed to have heritage value...
[...] The 2016 draft management plan called for an eventual population of roughly 600 horses, but as the Sydney Morning Herald reported last month, the government seems to have been swayed by “community groups eager to promote the horses’ heritage value.”
The authors of the open letter are questioning the need to retain so many wild horses in the park, especially given that conservationists will now have to continually kill these horses to keep the growing population in check... (MORE - missing details)