Horse data

Reclaim Kosci has been compiling data about the number of feral horses removed from Kosciuszko National Park since the horse removal program began in 2002.  All information is based on publicly available source documents prepared by NSW NPWS. Most source documents were NPWS newsletters, but some were responses to questions to NSW parliamentary committee hearings and a freedom of information request. Sources are listed in the downloadable spreadsheet.

The data shows a worrying picture. At no time since horse removal from the national park began in 2002 has the number of horses removed exceeded the number of horses that need to be removed just to stabilise the total horse population (to exceed the net breeding rate).  In most years it has only been a small proportion of the needed removal rate.

No horses were removed from Kosciuszko National Park between August 2017 and September 2019. Since July 2020 as part of a post-bushfire recovery program, a year-round horse removal program has been in place in three areas in the northern section of the park. No horses have been removed from the southern section of the national park since April 2016.

You can see more information about the feral horse population trends and the effect of the removal program in the report commissioned by Reclaim Kosci and released in May 2021: Feral Horses in Kosciuszko National Park: Population trends 2000-20 by Don Fletcher.

This represents the latest publicly available data as at 13 Sep 2021 and represents horse removals up to 30 June 2021.

This information is available to be used, republished and shared with attribution to Reclaim Kosci under a Creative Commons licence.