Australia to ban culling of wild horses at national park

SYDNEY: Australia said yesterday the culling of wild horses in a unique national park would be banned despite fears the animals were threatening native species.

An estimated 6,000 feral horses, known locally as ‘brumbies’, live in Kosciuszko National Park, a Unesco-recognised biosphere reserve some 470 kilometres south of Sydney that has plant species found nowhere else in the world.

Conservationists have called for the brumbies to be culled, saying the introduced animals were causing environmental damage and that their rising numbers were posing a growing threat.

In 2016 the New South Wales state government released a plan to cull 90 per cent of brumbies at Kosciuszko.

But they have since u-turned, deciding the horses are part of the ‘cultural fabric’ of the region and should be protected instead.

“Wild brumbies have been roaming the Australian alps for almost 200 years and are part of the cultural fabric and folklore of the high country,” NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro said in a statement.

“The heritage management plan will specifically prohibit lethal culling of the brumby, aerial or otherwise, and will identify those areas in the park where brumbies can roam without causing significant environmental harm.” Brumbies found roaming in parts of the park where they could destroy native wildlife would be relocated or re-homed, Barilaro added. — AFP