Snowy Mountains Brumby Sustainability and Management Group claims brumby numbers are overestimated

Members of the Snowy Mountains Brumby Sustainability and Management Group are opposing plans to decimate the population by up to 80 per cent.

The group’s president Alan Lanyon said they will make a formal submission that the population is between 1525 and 6100. 

Their claim that the population is overestimated is also backed by the Snowy Brumby Coalition, a group of businesses that operate in the national park. 

But the draft management plan, prepared by NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service staff and scientists, states based on their population survey numbers are “around 6000”. 

“They say there is 6000 across the Australian alps, we say there’s not – there is 3000 spread out across [the alps],” Mr Lanyon said.

“There is a significantly lower number across Kosciuszko National Park.”

The draft management plan also said the horses are found in groups of five to 20 brumbies, with groups being larger in the north. 

But Mr Lanyon said his group calculated that based on the number of groups, the population could fluctuate depending on how many horses were found in each cluster. 

The concern was if the numbers were lower than stated it would cause inbreeding, he said. 

“A population of that number is going to become heavily inbred and self-destroying,” Mr Lanyon said. 

“It’s like any population, you end up with an inferior animal, you end up with breeding problems.

“They will render themselves into oblivion.”

Brumby groups have previously expressed their dismay over plans to kill the horses due to their historical and cultural significance. 

The iconic animal was made famous in The Man From Snowy River. 

But the draft management plan has said population control is necessary to limit the damage brumbies do in the park, such as trampling native flora.

This story first appeared on the Daily Advertiser website.