The Complexities of Culling: Balancing Ecosystems and Wildlife Management

15 Jul The Complexities of Culling: Balancing Ecosystems and Wildlife Management

This will prove to be a much more sensitive subject when it comes to the conservation world.

For those unaware, culling is the practice where individuals within an overpopulated species are killed based on selective characteristics such as age, genetic material, health, etc. This has now emerged as a form of conservation.

Now at its face value this may seem to be a very contradictory practice and at times I struggle with labeling this practice as a method of conservation but this concept has an extreme depth that is worth exploring. Of course this program specifically addresses those that are invasive species but also those who populations have spiraled out of control thus damaging the biodiversity and the ability for the ecosystem to stay balanced.

This specific issue, we will focus on the population levels of feral horses in the Kosciuszko National Park.

“Last year the federal threatened species scientific committee warned that feral horses could be “the crucial factor that causes final extinction” of six critically endangered animals and at least two critically endangered plants and said urgent action was necessary.

Under NSW law, the government must reduce the number of feral horses in the park to 3,000 by 2027 … the last population surveys in October, which estimated the number of feral horses in the park had ballooned to 17,000.

The Invasive Species Council’s advocacy director, Jack Gough said no one liked to see animals killed but the “sad reality” was a choice had to be made between urgently reducing the numbers of feral horses or accepting the destruction of sensitive alpine rivers, and the decline and extinction of native animals.” The sad truth is that when an invasive species, or a species lacking a predator population, starts to take over it results in an unbalanced ecosystem. That species number skyrockets as they are able to reproduce and live unharmed and unaffected by predators. There is a higher likelihood of survival. In the case of the feral horses this leads to overgrazing which progresses to habitat destruction. So not only are the horses eating food that other species need but they are also destroying tools of survival for other species such as areas where smaller species can hide or use for protection. This decreases the biodiversity and causes a chain reaction that if it goes unchecked nothing will be able to be sustained there anymore. This is where the practice of culling comes into play.

With any concept there are practical applications while also being abused in other situations. This is where intense regulation must be implemented to ensure that these practices are being carried out ethically with the intention that is best for the species and their ecosystem.

Read the full article here: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/25/more-than-5000-feral-horses-culled-in-kosciuszko-national-park-since-aerial-shooting-resumed

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