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Aust'n ecology experts urge state gov't to cull 5,000 wild horses

Xinhua, September 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

A group of Victorian ecology experts have called for the aggressive culling of wild horses in the state.

The group of 41 academics, lead by Deakin University's Don Driscoll, said that 5000 wild brumbies, a free-roaming feral horse in Australia, should be killed to prevent environmental damage.

In a letter to Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, and Environment Minister, Liliana D'Ambrosio, the group of academics said the brumby population in Victoria's northeast was growing 21 percent every year.

"Victoria, to my knowledge, isn't doing anything to deal with the problem,"Driscoll told News Limited on Thursday.

The academic group said that because of higher reproduction rates, Victoria needed a more aggressive cull than New South Wales (NSW) where it was announced in April that the brumby population would be reduced from 6,000 to 3,000 in the next 10 years and down to 600 in 20 years.

Driscoll said the brumby population in the Alpine and Bogong High Plains was threatening a number of species such as the Alpine water skink, she-oak skink and broad-toothed rodent, as well as varied vegetation.

He said the Victorian government had a legal obligation to protect national parks that make up 17 percent of Victoria."The big obvious impact is alpine stream sites, in areas where there are horses all that vegetation has gone and you are just left with this bare dust,"he said.

The letter to the government suggested that aerial culling, with a marksman and a helicopter, would be the most humane method to cull the horses rather than ground shooting, trapping and sterilization programs used in NSW.

A submission to the NSW government was also forwarded to Andrews and D'Ambrosio supporting Driscoll's letter.

"The changes in NSW have strong implications for Victoria. Without an urgent control program in Victoria, horse numbers will continue to rise and damage our unique alpine species and ecosystems will continue to accrue,"the submission said.

"The longer this problem is left unmanaged, the more expensive it will be to fix." Endit