Right: pugged ground around a high country watercourse. Conservationists insist that the sharp, hard hooves of feral horses can damage land beyond recovery.
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Arguments in favour of the aerial culling of brumbies
1. Brumby numbers have reached unsustainable proportions
Aerial surveys of the wild horse population in the Australian Alps, including Kosciuszko National Park, between 2003 and 2009, indicate an increase in brumby numbers, from just under 2, 500 to over 7,500 horses.
With recent good seasons and an estimated population growth of between eight to 20 per cent every year, New South Wales National Parks are projecting that a conservative estimate, would put the current horse numbers in the alps at over 10,000, with over 7000 in Kosciuszko National Park.
Though estimates vary as to how many horses are actually in the alpine national parks now, researchers claim that this uncertainty makes little difference to the relative outcomes for horses. Considering the Kosciusko National Park and working on low estimates, it has been calculated that between 7,000 and 11,000 horses will die from starvation, poisoning or dehydration over a ten year period from if aerial culling is not included in management plans.
These calculations were made by Don Driscoll, Research Fellow in Ecology at the Australian National University and Sam Banks, ARC Future Fellow, Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University. Their conclusions were published in an opinion piece in The Conversation on September 23, 2014.
The two researchers have stated, 'If horse numbers are at the high end of recent estimates, the number that die in ways that we saw at Dead Horse Gap in Kosciuszko National Park could be as high as 20,000. In contrast, with aerial culling, only one quarter of this number would suffer and die on the mountain.'
The authors concluded, 'Whatever the initial population, deaths from starvation, poisoning and dehydration are likely to be 2-5 times higher if aerial culling isn't included in management...
Rounding up and shipping out horses has had its chance as a management strategy, and it has failed completely. The result is that our iconic Kosciuszko National Park is under an accelerating path of degradation, while at the same time, thousands of horses face prolonged suffering and death in the wild.'
2. Brumbies are an introduced pest which damages the native environment
The principal concern that conservationists have with feral horses in the alpine national parks is that they are an introduced species which, because of their size and hard hooves, are having a damaging impact on the landscape and the plants and animals native to the region.
The region is an important water catchment area and acts in this capacity in part because of the sphagnum moss which is found there. Professor Emeritus Geoff Hope of the Australian National University has described the harm caused by the brumbies.
Professor Hope has stated, 'Horses can do incredible damage incredibly quickly because it [the moss] is soft stuff and they are great heavy-hoofed animals but the long-term effect is to block the drainage and hold the water in the catchment for a lot longer than it would otherwise be.'
The same point has been made by Tom Bagnat, a New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service director. Mr Bagnat has stated, 'The horses upset the hydrology of the bog and it dries out and dies. The sphagnum bogs are the vegetation that filters the water in the upper reaches and provides good-quality water downstream. You will see a reduction in water quality and an increase in sediment as a result along those particular streams.'
It is claimed that brumbies can chew eucalyptus trees looking for minerals, scrape under riverbanks looking for salt, and make tracks that can cause erosion.
Damage to the physical landscape is then said to threaten the survival of those native species that live within it. The Guy Fawkes River National Park, for example, is regarded as a 'biodiversity hotspot', with 28 threatened plant species and 24 threatened animal species. Area manager Janelle Brooks has stated, 'Horses have been wild in this landscape for 100 years but the native flora and fauna have been here for thousands of years, millions of years.'
Among the animals which it is claimed the feral horses are harming is the endangered broad-toothed rat. Its habitat is beneath grass and herbs which is being trampled by the horses.
Another species supposedly impacted upon is the endangered southern corroboree frog which is only found in Kosciuszko. Close to extinction, there are thought to be only 100 left in the wild since they were infected with amphibian chytrid fungus. The horses cut through their breeding habitat of sphagnum moss on river banks to get to water.
Tom Bagnat, a New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service director has stated, 'There are a number of endangered ecological communities up there. Once they are gone, they are gone for good. We don't get them back.'
A 2007 review produced by Deakin University reported that horses reduce the number of native plants, promote weed invasion, degrade sphagnum bogs, increase soil erosion, increase tree deaths and alter communities of reptiles, mammals, crabs, fish, and birds.
3. Other control measures are inadequate or too expensive
It has been claimed that other means of controlling wild horse numbers are either ineffective or too expensive.
The average number of wild horses removed from the Victorian Alpine National Park over the past five years (2007 to 2012) has been 160 per annum, which represents less than 25% of the annual population increase seen between 2003 and 2009. Critics note that this is a seriously inadequate extraction rate which sees wild horse numbers continue to grow.
Population modelling suggests that to stabilise the Victorian Alps wild horse population at its current estimated size (8200 - 10 900 horses) around 350 -600 horses would need to be removed annually. While to return the population size to 2001 levels (around 5000 horses) around 1500 - 1900 horses would need to be removed annually for five years. Critics claim that current feral horse management techniques are not able to achieve this level of population decline.
Peter Lawrence, a recently retired Victorian park ranger has stated, 'The only way it's being managed is through trapping, which is a highly intensive effort required by staff, takes a lot of time and a lot of patience, and you can sometimes get only two to three animals after two weeks of work.'
In July, 2013, the Victorian National Parks Association made a submission in regard to Wild Horse Management in the Victorian Alps. The Association stated that 'roping (brumby running)... is ineffective, can distress and hurt the horses, and is not endorsed by the RSPCA'. Mustering was stated to be 'not viable in remote areas because trucking horses out on rough tracks from such areas causes considerable suffering.' A similar judgement was made about trapping. Fertility control was said to have 'a temporary effect only, and it's very difficult and costly.'
4. Skilled aerial culling is humane
Proponents of aerial culling note that it has been inexpertly employed in the past; however, they claim that if done well aerial culling is the most humane management strategy.
The RSPCA considers that where it is necessary to reduce the numbers of a wild species, 'The humaneness of a given control method is influenced by its application and the skill of the operator. Control methods must be applied in the best possible way by trained and competent operators.'
The New South Wales RSPCA Chief Inspector, David O'Shannessy, has indicated that if conditions are met, the RSPCA would support aerial culling in Kosciuszko National Park.
Mr O'Shannessy has stated, 'The RSCPA accepts that the circumstances may exist where among a suite of other control methods, it is possible that aerial culling may be an appropriate method to be employed, so long as the animals are humanely euthanised.'
Victoria's Invasive Species Council chief executive Andrew Cox has stated, 'An aerial culling program is now the only humane solution, provided there is rigorous welfare supervision and the RSPCA is closely involved.'
It has been noted that areas that are difficult to access require aerial culling to control feral horse numbers. Phil Ingamell's of the Victorian National Parks Association's has claimed that controlling horses would take a range of actions, depending on where they were located, but that a cull was inevitable in remote locations.
Don Driscoll, Research Fellow in Ecology at the Australian National University and Sam Banks, ARC Future Fellow, Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University have noted that only thirty percent of those horses trapped and removed from the high country are successfully re-homed. The rest are sent to abattoirs.
Driscoll and Banks have claimed, 'From an animal ethics point of view, aerial culling spares thousands of horses from unsavoury deaths on the mountain due to starvation, thirst or poisoning, and spares hundreds to thousands of horses from the stress of capture, trucking and subsequent death in an abattoir.'
5. The traditional significance of the brumbies has been exaggerated and does not require that they be preserved in the high country
Some of those who believe that the brumbies should be either culled or completely removed from national parks argue that Australia's cultural traditions can continue to be acknowledged without these horses remaining in the parks in large numbers.
Roger Good is a retired alpine ecologist and soil conservationist who worked on restoring degraded areas following the removal of alpine cattle grazing. He argues that the physical presence of introduced species is not necessary for their place in Australia's heritage to continue to be recognised. He further claims that the cultural significance of some of these animals has been exaggerated.
Mr Good has stated, 'Large grazing] is not culturally very significant. They thought it was. You can still have the cultural acceptance of it, that it did happen, that it's been part of the history of the European settlement of the mountains but you don't have to have stock up there to show the public this is what used to go on.' Mr Good believes the situation regarding the brumbies is similar.
Some critics have suggested that the supposed cultural icon status of the brumbies is simplistic, noting that Banjo Paterson did not merely romanticise the brumbies; he also wrote about the wild horses being 'a great nuisance to stock owners'. There are accounts from the mid-1800s of stockmen rounding up brumbies and shooting them.
It has also been noted that popular conceptions about the current state of brumbies in alpine regions are often inaccurate. A Feral Horse Management Workshop Report released in March, 2004, noted, 'The public image of brumbies in the Snowy Mountains is similar to those depicted in movies like the Silver Brumby; however, the reality is often very different.'
The report then presents a slide showing a half-starved horse at the end of winter with bad conformation which it claims is 'typical of many of the Snowy Mountain horses.'