Brumby

The term brumby refers to a feral horse in Australia.[8] The first recorded use in print[9] in 1871 has the connotation of an inferior or worthless animal, and culling of feral horses as a pest soon became known as brumby shooting. The Australasian magazine from Melbourne in 1880 said that brumbies were the bush name in Queensland for 'wild' horses.[10] In 1885, the Once a Month magazine suggested that rumbies was a New South Wales term, and the poet Banjo Paterson stated in the introduction for his poem Brumby's Run published in the Bulletin in 1894 that brumby is the Aboriginal word for a wild horse.[11] Its derivation is obscure,[12] and may have come about from one or more of the following possibilities:

1. Horses left behind by Sergeant James Brumby from his property at Mulgrave Place in New South Wales, when he left for Tasmania in 1804.[13]
2. An Aboriginal word baroomby meaning "wild" in the language of the Pitjara Indigenous Australians on the Warrego and Nogoa Rivers in southern Queensland.[14] The term is supposed to have spread from that district in about 1864.[15]
3. A letter in 1896 to the Sydney Morning Herald says that baroombie is the word for horse among the Aboriginal people of the Balonne, Nebine, Warrego and Bulloo Rivers.[16][17]
4. Baramba, which was the name of a creek and station in the Queensland district of Burnett, established in the 1840s and later abandoned, leaving many of the horses to escape into the wild.[18]
5. It has also been suggested that the name derives from the Irish word bromach or bromaigh, meaning "colt".[16]

Earlier nineteenth-century terms for wild horses in rural Australia included clear-skins and scrubbers.[19]

Horses first arrived in Australia in 1788 with the First Fleet. They were imported for farm and utility work; recreational riding and racing were not major activities. By 1800, only about 200 horses are thought to have reached Australia. Horse racing became popular around 1810, resulting in an influx of Thoroughbred imports, mostly from England. Roughly 3,500 horses were living in Australia by 1820, and this number had grown to 160,000 by 1850, largely due to natural increase.[20] The long journey by sea from England, Europe, and Asia meant that only the strongest horses survived the trip, making for a particularly healthy and strong Australian stock, which aided in their ability to flourish.[21]

A brumby that was caught in the Apsley River Gorge.

Horses were likely confined primarily to the Sydney region until the early 19th century, when settlers first crossed the Blue Mountains and opened expansion inland. Horses were required for travel, and for cattle and sheep droving as the pastoral industry grew. The first report of an escaped horse is in 1804, and by the 1840s some horses had escaped from settled regions of Australia. It is likely that some escaped because fences were not properly installed, when fences existed at all,[3] but it is believed that most Australian horses became feral because they were released into the wild and left to fend for themselves.[22] This may have been the result of pastoralists abandoning their settlements, and thus their horses, due to the arid conditions and unfamiliar land that combined to make farming in Australia especially difficult. After World War I, the demand for horses by defence forces declined with the growth in mechanization, which led to a growth in the number of unwanted animals that were often set free. Throughout the 20th century, the replacement of horses with machines in farming led to further reductions in demand, and may have also contributed to increases in feral populations.[23]

Currently, Australia has at least 400,000 horses roaming the continent.[24] It is also estimated that, during non-drought periods, the feral horse population increases at a rate of 20 percent per year.[25] Drought conditions and brushfires are natural threats.[3] Despite population numbers, feral horses are generally considered to be a moderate pest.[26] Where they are allowed to damage vegetation and cause erosion, the impact on the environment is significant, and for that reason can be considered a serious environmental threat. However, because they also have cultural and potential economic value, the management of brumbies presents a complex issue.[3]

Brumbies roaming in the Australian Alps of south-eastern Australia are thought to be descendants of horses which were owned by the pastoralist and pioneer, Benjamin Boyd.[18] Feral horses in Barmah National Park mainly originate from stock released by a local horse breeder after 1952, there was no significant long term population of "wild" horses in the park area prior to this date.[27]

On the coast south of Geraldton, Western Australia the brumbies there are known as "Pangare ponies", as they appear to carry the rare Pangaré gene. This colouring is commonly known as mealy and is seen mainly in a number of old breeds such as British Ponies, Timor Ponies, Haflingers and even Belgian Draught horses. The gene causes lightening in parts of a horse's coat, resulting in a mealy-coloured muzzle, forearms, flanks, and the belly. It is sometimes seen in chestnut horses with flaxen-coloured manes and tails.[28]

The Pangaré brumbies appear to have adapted well to their coastal environment, where they are consuming saltbush, which they do not appear to be damaging. The Department of Environment and Conservation and the Outback Heritage Horse Association of Western Australia (OHHAWA) are monitoring these particular brumbies to ensure the careful management of these unusual feral horses.[29]

The changes in vegetation that result when feral horses overpopulate a region affects bird species by removing plants upon which they feed, as well as altering the habitat of the birds and their prey.[47] Feral horse grazing is also linked to a decline in reptiles and amphibians due to habitat loss.[48] In addition, the grazing and trampling near waterways influences aquatic fauna. In areas frequented by horses, crab densities are higher, increasing the propensity for predation on fish. As a result, fish densities decline as the removal of vegetation renders them more susceptible to predation.[47]

In areas where horses are abundant, macropod populations are less prevalent. This is most likely due to the horses' consumption of vegetation upon which the macropods normally feed.[23] When horses are removed, signs of the presence of various macropods, specifically the black-footed rock wallaby, increase. Thus, competition with horses may be the reason for the decline in macropod populations in certain areas.[49]

Brumby populations also may have the potential to pass exotic diseases, such as equine influenza and African horse sickness to domestic horses.[50] They also may carry tick fever, which can be passed to both horses and cattle.[3] This can lead to high fatalities among domestic populations, causing many farmers to call for the management of feral horses.

Like all livestock, brumbies can carry the parasite Cryptosporidium parvum, which can result in serious gastroenteritis in people drinking contaminated drinking water.[51]

Brumbies awaiting their sale and new homes.

The traditional method of removal, called brumby running, is reminiscent of Banjo Paterson's iconic poem, The Man from Snowy River where expert riders rope the brumbies and remove them to a new location.[18][56]

Options for population control include fertility control, ground and helicopter shooting, and mustering and trapping. None of the methods provide complete freedom from suffering for the horses, and the cost of each is very high. The costs include those that are economic, such as research, equipment purchases, and labour expenditures, as well as moral concerns over the welfare of the horses. As a result, more effective and efficient means of control have been called for.[20]

Fertility control is a non-lethal method of population management that is usually viewed as the most humane treatment,[57] and its use is supported by the RSPCA.[54] While it appears as though these treatments are effective in the breeding season immediately following injection, the lasting effects are debated. Because it is costly and difficult to treat animals repeatedly, this method, despite being ideal, is not widely implemented.[57][58]

Shooting by trained marksmen is considered to be the most practical method of control due to its effectiveness. The NSW Department of Primary Industries believe shooting is the preferred method of population control as it does not subject the horses to the stresses of mustering, yarding, and long-distance transportation, all of which are related to 'capture and removal' methods.[59] Horses that are only initially wounded from shooting are tracked and dispatched if they are in accessible, open country. Brumbie advocacy groups do not consider mountain shooting to be humane.[60] Helicopter shootings allow for aerial reconnaissance of a large area to target the densest populations, and shooters may get close enough to the target animals to ensure termination.[23] This method is considered the most effective and cost efficient means of control, but disapproval is high amongst those that believe it is inhumane.[26] Organizations supporting brumbies argue that aerial shooting is unnecessary and that alternative population control methods have not been given adequate trials, while government officials express concern about the need to control rapidly growing populations in order to avoid ecological problems associated with too many feral horses in certain areas.[61]

Mustering is a labour-intensive process that results in one of two major outcomes: slaughter for sale, or relocation. It may be assisted by feed-luring in which bales of hay are strategically placed to attract feral horses to a location where capture is feasible. Complicating this process is low demand for the captured horses, making it less desirable than fertility control or shooting, which reduce the population without having to find alternative locations for them.[23]

Brumbies on the Chandler River, Oxley Wild Rivers National Park.

As of 2020 the estimated number of brumbies in Kosciuszko National Park is 14,000, up from 6,000 in 2016.[62]

Between 22 October and 24 October 2000, approximately 600 brumbies were shot in the Guy Fawkes River National Park by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. As a result of the public outcry that followed the NSW Government established a steering committee to investigate alternative methods of control.[63] Since the campaign began to remove horses from the national park, over 400 have been passively trapped and taken from the Park, and 200 of these have been re-homed.[37]

A particular feral horse of Australia, the Coffin Bay pony, was completely removed from the Coffin Bay National Park and relocated to a neighbouring parcel of land by 2004. This was a result of a public outcry to a previously proposed plan by South Australia's Department of Environment and Natural Resources to cull all animals in the park.[64]

A NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service cull during 2006 and 2007 in Kosciuszko National Park, where there were an estimated 1700 horses in 2005,[65] resulted in a reduction of 64 horses.[66] The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service commenced a plan in 2007 to reduce brumby numbers by passive trapping in the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park.[67] Over 60 brumbies captured in the Apsley River Gorge have now been re-homed.

In 2008 the third phase of an aerial culling of brumbies took place, by shooting 700 horses from a helicopter, in Carnarvon Gorge in Carnarvon National Park, Queensland.[68]