DoC will fund a Kaimanawa wild horse muster after charities warned numbers could surge without population control. Photo / Alan Gibson
By Jimmy Ellingham of RNZ
This year’s muster of Kaimanawa wild horses in the Central North Island will go ahead after the Department of Conservation backed down from plans not to fund it.
That decision’s been welcomed by a champion of the horses, who said they were at risk of getting culled if numbers weren’t controlled with an annual muster.
The department said it was targeting a population of about 300 horses, which was more than 200 fewer than the number roaming military-owned land in the Central Plateau.
Kaimanawa Legacy Foundation founding board member Kelly Wilson said it and fellow charity, the Kaimanawa Heritage Horses Welfare Society, were approached by the Department of Conservation (DoC) a few weeks ago, saying this year’s muster was to happen in late March but if the charities wanted it to go ahead they’d have to fund it.
“[This] put us into quite a predicament because, obviously, it’s really high priority that we keep the herd at a sustainable number, because as it escalates the risk of culling as a management tool becomes higher,” Wilson said.
“But obviously, with no notice, to be able to come up with that kind of budget is almost impossible. The musters cost anywhere from $80,000 to $130,000, depending on how many horses are moved from the mountains, and there was real concern that this year a muster wouldn’t be happening.”
The charities negotiated with DoC, which offered a couple of compromise deals, before discussions with its director-general resulted in the department agreeing to pick up the tab for a “mega muster” in April, as well as using immunocontraception – fertility control – on 50 horses.
Wilson said this year’s muster would aim to remove 149 horses from the mountains, leaving about 400.
If horse numbers weren’t managed, they’d hit 1100 in three years.
If the department hadn’t changed its mind about funding the muster, Wilson wasn’t sure the charities would have found the money for it.
“The problem with raising that money is that we’re also in the time period where we are actively fundraising to help save horses.
“Kaimanawa Heritage Horses fundraisers during this time to support welfare cases and Kaimanawa Legacy Foundation is fundraising to support initial handling subsidies, which can be a deal breaker for someone considering rehoming a horse, because having a $1000 subsidy towards the horse’s training cost can be a make-or-break for a potential owner looking to save a life.”
If the muster didn’t happen and the horse population rose, culling would likely be the only available means of population control left.
Last year 226 were taken and it was a “mammoth task” to find homes for that many, a task that would be hard to repeat, Wilson said.
For now, the charities were focused on rehoming horses from this year’s muster.
Applications for horses closed in early April and so far there had only been five, Wilson said.
DoC’s Taupō operations manager Dave Conley said details for this year’s muster, such as cost, weren’t fully finalised, but he confirmed the department would fund it.
“The Kaimanawa Wild Horse Advisory Group will meet later this week to finalise the planning and operational components of the muster,” he said.
That group included the charities, iwi and the Defence Force.
“DoC originally declined to fund this year’s muster due to internal budget reprioritisation and recent shifts in conservation focus and funding priorities,” he said.
“This has changed because we are now considering an approach that would allow a muster to proceed this year while potentially eliminating the need for one next year.”
That included piloting the use of contraceptives for horses.
Conley said no decisions had been made about future musters.
“The department initiated a population management programme in 1995 to maintain the Kaimanawa wild horse herd at a sustainable level and minimise impacts on rare and threatened plant species in the Moawhango Ecological Zone.
“The long‑standing population target is 300 horses, which is considered sufficient to maintain genetic diversity in the horse herd.”
The horses had lived in the area for more than a century.
– RNZ