The " Culling " Question !

It would be a tossup whether dogs or cats are the most favoured animal in the minds of us humans, but horses would certainly take third place.   There is something about the grace and beauty of a galloping horse that appeals to the human psyche.  Perhaps a form of nostalgia when we think back to the centuries when the noble horse was the only alternative to walking.  It was once our primary means of transport.

Today it has been displaced by the automobile.  There are still riding schools in the outer suburbs and near country areas but the sight of horses grazing on vacant land has almost disappeared from our cities.  The only place where they are now plentiful seems to be in the Kosciuszko National Park - and that is causing an ecology problem.

There were no horses in Australia before the First Fleet arrived in 1788.  They are an introduced species to this country and the first to escape into the bush happened in 1804, sixteen years after their introduction.   That was the start of the massive herd of wild horses that now run free in the high country and whose hooves are doing irreparable damage to the delicate wetlands and slow growing alpine vegetation. We estimate that there are at least four hundred  thousand wild horses in central Australia and six thousand are breeding in the high country and the numbers are completely out of control.

These alpine and sub-alpine areas are particularly vulnerable to the hard hoofed horse.  It compacts the earth around streams and ruins the soil, and horses distribute the seeds of invasive plants and weeds to areas they visit.  One of the endangered species under threat from horses is the Corroboree frog.

A battle has raged between scientists seeking the protection of our alpine areas and conservatives  protecting these wild horses as to what needs to be done to reduce the numbers.  In the past, culling programmes have mainly been by way of poison baits or marksmen shooting horses from helicopters. Both are seen as cruel and bring heated opposition from horse lovers.

There are ongoing plans to capture young horses and domesticate them for sale but progress is slow and this will never substantially lower the ever growing numbers.   The final determination of the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee comes into conflict with a decision by the state government to protect the wild horses in the Kosciuszko National park.   As a result, conservative elements will boycott nominations to sit on the Wild Horse Community Panel tasked with finding a solution to this problem.

It is obvious that the numbers need to be reduce and that can only happen by some sort of culling. Finding a method that is socially acceptable to horse lovers  seems to be an impossible task.  Farmers and graziers have had their sheep and cattle locked our of the high country because of the damage caused by their hooves.   Access is a thorny question which is not helped by the ever growing herd of wild horses which have claimed the high country as their preserve.