New, highly detailed aerial imagery, which has been publicly released by mapping company Airborne Logic, has revealed the extensive damage by feral horses to the alpine rivers, grasslands and mossbeds of Kosciuszko National Park.
A selection of aerial images from this project, which show examples of the feral horse damage have been put together by the Invasive Species Council and are available here.
Horse tracks cross an eroded tributary of McPhersons Creek, Kosciuszko National Park
Credit: Airborne Logic
Roll pits and horse tracks, Blanket Plain, Kosciuszko National Park
Credit: Airborne Logic
Ecologist Dr Don Fletcher, who is giving evidence to the NSW Parliament today, said:
‘This new publicly available aerial imagery shows an astonishing density of horse tracks and horse damage in Kosciuszko National Park.
‘Almost everywhere you look there are webs of horse tracks scarring what is meant to be a pristine landscape. With these detailed aerial shots you can get a real sense of the scale of damage to alpine creek banks and native grasslands.
‘This is a stark picture of a national park turning into a degraded horse paddock.’
Local indigenous river guide and honorary Associate Professor at the Australian National University, Richard Swain said:
‘I want people to look at these images and see the senseless destruction of Country by feral horses over the last 20 years. It has been a national disgrace.
‘For the sake of the high country it is past time that we put to bed the senseless arguments around feral horse numbers.
‘The evidence that they are causing huge damage is uncontestable.’
Professor Jamie Pittock, an expert on the ecology of the Alps and impact of the feral horses from the ANU’s Fenner School of Environment and Society said:
‘Feral horses are wreaking havoc in the high country. Those horse tracks you see cutting up the landscape are destroying the habitat of animals like corroboree frogs.
‘The years of delay and inaction have seen feral horse populations rapidly increase and this has had devastating environmental consequences.
‘The headwaters of our major rivers are being polluted and turned into mud baths.’
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Other images of feral horses and their damage are available here.
Background notes
- A November 2023 NSW government survey of feral horse numbers found that there are about 17,432 feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park (with a 95% confidence interval of between 12,934 and 22,536). This is an increase from about 6,000 feral horses in 2014.
- In NSW, feral horses are protected at the expense of native wildlife under the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act 2018, which requires a ‘heritage herd’ of feral horses to be maintained in Kosciuszko National Park.
- The current management plan for feral horses, which was introduced by the former Liberal Government, imposes a legal obligation on NSW National Parks to carry out control operations to reduce the feral horse population to 3,000 across 32% of Kosciuszko National Park by 2027
- The Australian Senate inquiry report into the Impacts and management of feral horses in the Australian Alps was released in October 2023 and recommended that:
- Aerial shooting should be adopted for control of feral horses in NSW (adopted by the NSW Government in October 2023)
- Habitat degradation, competition and disease transmission by feral horses should be listed as a Key Threatening Process under national environmental law (Agreed to in principle in federal government response)
- The federal government should provide additional funding to assist NSW and Victoria to control feral horses (Not yet agreed to by the Albanese Government)
- The Senate committee also found that it ‘is not currently possible for both the EPBC Act and the NSW Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act 2018 to be complied with’ and that ‘the committee considers that there may be an issue relating to the constitutional validity of the NSW Wild Horse Heritage Act to the extent it is inconsistent with the EPBC Act.’
- National Parks staff undertake feral horse control work professionally, humanely, and safely. This has been confirmed by two independent animal welfare reviews (here and here) of NSW feral horse control operations which found that:
- Animal welfare outcomes are prioritised and are better than predicted, as confirmed by independent veterinary observations.
- There was no evidence of non-kill shots having been taken.
- Standard Operating Procedures are rigorously followed, and all personnel have welfare as a priority.
- Australia’s alpine plants and animals did not evolve with heavy, hard-hoofed feral horses. They are not native and cause enormous damage to sensitive habitat, degrading and polluting alpine streams and driving native species towards extinction.
- The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee have described feral horses as an ‘imminent threat’ to the Albanese government’s commitment to prevent new extinctions of plants and animals and stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.
- The 2023 state election demonstrated that having a strong position on feral horse management in Kosciuszko was electorally popular. There were strong swings to candidates and parties that took firm positions on feral horse control, most notably in the seats of Wagga Wagga and Monaro.
- Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.
- Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of the Australian Alps.