Description
Brumbies are wild horses. The number of wild horses in Australia has been estimated at up to 300,000 horses. They are considered a problem as they cause erosion, spread weeds and compete for pasture with native animals and farm animals. Horses arrived in Australia with the First Fleet in 1788, and over the years many escaped and became established in the wild. As machines gradually replaced horses, many more horses were released into the wild.
Other Names
Feral Horse, Wild Horse
Size
typical horse size
Habitat
Feral horses inhabit semi-arid plains, rocky ranges, tropical grasslands, wetlands, subalpine forests, small offshore islands. They prefer areas with grassland and shrubland with access to drinking water.
Food
grasses and other vegetation
Breeding
A single foal is born after a gestation period of about 11 months. Feral horses breed in spring to summer and can produce one foal every two years.
Range
Northern Territory, Queensland and some parts of Western Australia and South Australia. Scattered populations in New South Wales and Victoria.
Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Notes
Culling (shooting) wild horses to control numbers is a controversial practice with thousands of horses being shot in national parks. They are often shot by marksmen trained to shoot the horses from helicopters.
Classification
| Class: | Mammalia | | Order: | Perrisodactyla | | Family: | Equidae | | Genus: | Equus | | Species: | caballus | | Common Name: | Brumby |
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