Horse and camel cull, finally

[Hallu]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-22/c ... sa/4705490

Finally they've decided to kill all those environment-damaging horses and hopefully camels (a French website reports the program is for camels and donkeys too). It's not like foxes, dogs, cats, and wild pigs who are hard to track and shoot, wild horses, camels and donkeys are easy to spot from the sky, it only takes willingness to do it. I'm just surprised they're gonna put at the hunters disposal only 4 helicopters... A nationwide program with hundreds of helicopters could easily kill all those feral animals in less than a year and finally eradicate them, I don't understand why it isn't done. It's not like it's only a conservation problem, ranchers are concerned too. All those animals damage fences, water pumps and reservoirs, and vegetation.

Of course a more humane way would be to capture those animals and either sell them abroad (Saudis pay top dollar for good wild camels and I'm sure other people would for the horses) or eat them (very cheap meat as they're easy pickings in the wild, and no rotting carcass in the middle of nowhere), as it was shown recently on the first episode of "Australia with Simon Reeve". Unfortunately it's not economically viable for outback ranchers to do it, so shooting them it is...

[highercountry]

Of course a more humane way would be to capture those animals...

The RSPCA supports aerial culling as the most humane method of controlling feral horses.
"Brumby running", trapping and transportation places a high risk of injury on both the horses and the operators.
A cull such as this is well and truly overdue in the Aust Alps.

[highercountry]

I'm just surprised they're gonna put at the hunters disposal only 4 helicopters...

It is not a very pleasant subject at all and a very emotional issue for some.
A professional shooter in a situation of high horse density and low levels of vegetation cover can shoot over three hundred horses a day.
Four choppers, four shooters, the maths is simple. The target 10,000 kill could be achieved in around two weeks.
Australia has the highest population of feral horses in the world. Mostly located in remote pastoral country, the population is estimated at being between 300,000 and 600,000.

[gayet]

...
A cull such as this is well and truly overdue in the Aust Alps.

This particular cull is in the NT. But yes, removal of non native large species can only help....

Camels are exported to Saudi, as Aus camels are highly prized for racing. Not sure how many or how frequesntly but it has happened. The concerns re the horses is that these wild herds may be the best examples of the 'waler' breed left. And if they can survive well out there they have to be tough and would still make good animals for stock work etc. The cost of capture and training would be high though.

[Hallu]

What I don't get is the absence of a nation wide plan. Australia would certainly have the money for this, especially if it only takes 4 choppers and hunters to kill 10 000 animals in a couple of months... A country like Equador did it for feral goats on the Galapagos, with huge success, surely we can do it as well.

[highercountry]

What I don't get is the absence of a nation wide plan.

Not many politicians are brave enough to incur the wrath of the horsey brigade or animal welfare mob.
NSW Nat. Parks and Wildlife tried a small horse cull in the Guy Fawkes National Park back in 2000.
606 horses were shot and a whipped-up public outrage resulted.
Consequently the NSW State Government of the time placed a moratorium on shooting feral horses, despite the fact that horses are routinely (and discreetly) culled in the NT, Queensland and WA.

Australia would certainly have the money for this,

Govt. spending on environmental issues takes a back seat (way back) to health, education, roads and dozens of other causes.

[Hallu]

Well once one of these herds damages a gold or iron mine, I'm sure it'll be over in 1 week... And animal welfare is so stupid... Culling IS for animal welfare. Specifically the welfare of NATIVE species. We're correcting the mistakes of our ancestors, who brought all those feral species, and it needs to be done. Any animal welfare slob who thinks the contrary deserves to be banned from the association... Yeah yeah horses are cute etc... but those are animals that SHOULDN'T exist, they're here because of human mistakes. Why whining about horses when you're glad that feral cane toads, goats or wild pigs are shot ? Do they also whine about the culling of wild dogs and cats ?

[Clusterpod]

Nationwide plan for invasive species? Like airdropped poisons and fences?

How long have the Cane Toads been here?

The WA "Environment Minister" just told the state to "get used to it" because theres nothing to be done.

They've had decades to come up with some sort of plan for Cane toads, goats and camels in WA (I don't know about the other states) but now a minister says "too bad, so sad".

[north-north-west]

It's not like foxes, dogs, cats, and wild pigs who are hard to track and shoot, wild horses, camels and donkeys are easy to spot from the sky, it only takes willingness to do it.

I'm all in favour of this, especially in the High Country. but don't overestimate the ease of removing the entire population until you've seen a bit more of the Australian Alps. I know plenty of areas where the cover is so thick a few hundred horses could quite easily hide. And it only takes a few to re-establish the population (eventually).

[ribuck]

When there were brumbies in the Grose valley, every environmental problem was blamed on them: erosion, weeds, lack of bluegum seedlings, leeches. The brumbies were eradicated, and ... the same problems continued.

[Eremophila]

Ummm..... feral horse culling has been around in the NT for many years. Perhaps not continuously, I don't know. I believe their numbers are far less in Central Australia than previous, I remember camping years ago and seeing many dozens of horses which are now gone.

And certainly donkey and goat culling, in outback SA, has been around for a long time. But these animals are prolific, and their favoured habitats not always easy pickings.

Don't know about camel culling, certainly camels from Central Australia have been exported to Saudi Arabia for racing purposes, and are currently slaughtered in small numbers for meat. I know guys who have permits to bow-hunt them, the objective being to kill with a single shot to the heart. They butcher on the spot and don't waste anything.

So it's not exactly a new initiative.

As for exporting the horses - for what purpose - racing? They are worth nothing to no-one, in dollar terms.

And cheap meat - definitely not. The logistics of shooting a few beasts some 800km or more from the nearest town, probably not close to a road or even a 4WD track - butchering a large carcass on-site, refrigerating and transporting the meat safely ????? oesn't work out too cheap at all.

[Clusterpod]

The economic benefit by removing a destructive species to an ecology has rarely been calculated, and will be unlikely unless it threatens a perceived tourist dollar or impacts a mining operation.

[oldpiscator]

No problem with the idea of a cull although this will be a very limited one. My problem is with the use of the term RANCHERS in Australia and I would like to see this culled from our language After all we are Australian still, even though you may not get that impression from watching the advertisements on commercial TV etc. " ranchers are concerned too." " not economically viable for outback ranchers to do it"

[walkinTas]

The economic benefit by removing a destructive species to an ecology has rarely been calculated, and will be unlikely unless it threatens a perceived tourist dollar or impacts a mining operation.

Macquarie Island should have shown everyone just how hard it is to remove introduced species, and how costly. And that was only 13,000 hectares.

[wayno]

in NZ it's a loosing battle eliminating pests. people are talking about triaging our endangered species because of the onslaught of introduced predators that can't be controlled... decide which endangered animals we can afford to save and which are going to be too expensive...
the reality is, we just have small areas that have constant pest control to keep the no's down, only the smallest offshore islands ever eradicate pests and to get to that stage takes a lot of time money and effort.
a million dollars to clear the small auckland islands of rats..
when you've got highly mobile pests in a reasonable sized landscape it's mission impossible to rid yourself of them.
you could be fooled tramping in nz to thinking a reasonable no of birds are alive and well. but that is usually because the tracks are corridors used to trap their predators. outside of those corridors you can be hard pushed to hear any bird life...
the routeburn track now traps predators from end to end and the improvement in bird life is very noticeable over a few years...
so DOC will hammer various areas with 1080 and trap but it just stems the tide of the introduced pests. and keeps some native species from disappearing altogether...

[Drifting]

in NZ it's a loosing battle eliminating pests. people are talking about triaging our endangered species because of the onslaught of introduced predators that can't be controlled... decide which endangered animals we can afford to save and which are going to be too expensive...
the reality is, we just have small areas that have constant pest control to keep the no's down, only the smallest offshore islands ever eradicate pests and to get to that stage takes a lot of time money and effort.
a million dollars to clear the small auckland islands of rats..
when you've got highly mobile pests in a reasonable sized landscape it's mission impossible to rid yourself of them.
you could be fooled tramping in nz to thinking a reasonable no of birds are alive and well. but that is usually because the tracks are corridors used to trap their predators. outside of those corridors you can be hard pushed to hear any bird life...
the routeburn track now traps predators from end to end and the improvement in bird life is very noticeable over a few years...
so DOC will hammer various areas with 1080 and trap but it just stems the tide of the introduced pests. and keeps some native species from disappearing altogether...

They are doing the same triage system here. How'd you like to be the person who made the decision to let the hairy-nose wombat or the swift parrot slip into extinction? What would qualify someone for that job?

[wayno]

one of our national govt politicians would have no trouble weilding that axe,
the dept of conservation recommended to teh minister to protect the denniston plateau from coal mining because of its uniqueness and the destruction and sterilisation of the landscape that would happen, he ignored them....

[Clusterpod]

Hey, we keep voting these people in...

[Onestepmore]

Of course a more humane way would be to capture those animals and either sell them abroad (Saudis pay top dollar for good wild camels and I'm sure other people would for the horses) .

'Humane' capture and overseas transport?
Or even transport to an abbatoir?

Dealing with numbers of large feral livestock on the ground is difficult and dangerous - to human and animals
Horses (and especially camels) require completely different sets of infrastructure than cattle
And look how 'humane' overseas live transport of cattle has been......

And in regard to some people's suggestion they could be broken in for riding horses, it's not economically viable. A brumby has amost no value as a riding horse, in terms of the time and expense it takes to handle and train. Especially when there are well handled failed thoroughbreds off the track to be had for a song.

Associate Professor Tony English (a former Colonel in the Aust Army, and previous advisor to AMRRIC - Animal Management in Rural and Remote Indigenous Communities -, previous Director of Wildlife health and Conservation Service Centre, member of the Game Council of Aust and long time cattle and deer vet) put a lot of time and effort in trying to advise on control of large feral animals.
Aerial shooting has it's merits, and it's still the most acceptable method, but it's hard to call it humane
http://www.kbrhorse.net/news/brumby05.html
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/pests ... gement.htm
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resou ... Report.pdf. Here it notes that in the 'fly backs' where they go back to reshoot injured horses, many had to be shot 4 times to ensure that were dead. They don't aim for the head, but the chest and lung area ('killing zone')

Related
Horse management in Kosci NP
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resou ... inal08.pdf

[wayno]

wild horses in the kaimanawa are rounded up and sold to the public in NZ

http://kaimanawa.homestead.com/HorsesForSale.html