The largest population of wild horses in Europe is at risk of disappearing as their habitat is eroded by eucalyptus plantations and the foals are ravaged by wolves.
The number of bestas, as the wild horses are known, has halved to about 10,000 in Galicia since the 1970s.
People in the region have been looking after wild horses since Roman times and there are even depictions of them in petroglyphs from centuries before that. The animals are allowed to roam free for most of the time and are rounded up once a year in traditional festivals to have their manes cut and to be disinfected and vaccinated.
The spread of eucalyptus plantations to feed paper mills is threatening the horses’ natural heathland habitat. The region is also home to western Europe’s largest population of wolves and the horses are their main prey. The government does compensate owners if a horse is killed by a wolf but the process for making a claim involves taking an inspector to the scene of the killing, a complicated operation given the terrain.
Owning wild horses holds little economic reward. Some foals are sold for horse meat and their manes and tails can be used to stuff mattresses and shoulder pads, but the main incentive is continuing a tradition that has been passed down for generations. Onerous laws such as a 2008 EU directive to microchip all animals can be a disincentive. Owners are also liable if their horses cause car accidents when roaming on to Galicia’s winding roads.
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The decline of the wild horse population bodes ill for Galicia’s ecosystem, said Jaime Fagundez, a biologist at the University of A Coruña and lead writer on a report produced for GrazeLIFE, a project commissioned by the EU.
The report studied two populations of wild horses in Groba and Xistral on Galicia’s northern and western coasts. It concluded that losing the herds would have a significant impact on heathlands, which promote biodiversity, encouraging carbon capture in the soil and preventing wildfires. “Even if the activity isn’t very profitable for the owners there should nonetheless be alternative schemes for keeping a system which is a benefit for society as a whole,” Fagundez argued.
Unlike cattle, the horses feed mainly on gorse, keeping the plant in check. This allows other species to thrive, such as the rare march gentian, a blue, trumpet-shaped flower that is also found in the New Forest in Hampshire. Without the horses, the heath can easily degenerate into scrubland, making it more prone to wildfires, an increasing problem in Galicia.
Horses also act as “a buffer” between wolves and other agricultural animals, Fagundez said. Without wild ponies as prey, wolves would start looking for other sources of food and create more tension with farmers, he said.
The report recommends that the EU should give some leeway to owners on regulations and limit the use of land for eucalyptus planting. Given the difficulties in rounding up the horses, the EU should drop that requirement for wild horses. It should also provide subsidies to fence fields near roads in order to reduce the number of car accidents and improve warning signage.
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Horses and wolves can coexist if the compensation system is adjusted to pay for the presence of wolves in the area rather than for the damage they cause, the report said.
Wild horses do not need to be owned by humans in order to survive but Fagundez said that cutting off the relationship between humans and the animals would harm the region’s cultural heritage.