Feral donkeys were first brought to Australia as pack animals to replace horses, which had succumbed to native poisonous plants. Now numbering 5 million, they have been declared a pest, owing to their damage to vegetation and erosion of soil. Culling is mainly carried out by marksmen in helicopters, and experiments are being made in fertility control.
Feral donkeys in Australia (and elsewhere) are donkeys (scientific name Equus asinus) which escaped from captivity, and are living and breeding in the wild. Donkeys originated in Africa and in parts of Asia. They are a part of the family Equidae. While donkeys display many horse-like characteristics, they are more closely related to wild asses.
Donkeys were brought to Australia from 1866 for use as pack and haulage animals. [1] Up until that point, the Australians had been using the horse as their main mode of transportation. However, problems arose when the horses used in transportation began to become sickened by some of the native poisonous plants. When donkeys proved to be invulnerable to the plants that were making the horses sick, more donkeys were brought in. Escape was common because of the lack of fences, and there were reported herds of donkeys by the 1920s. In western Australia in 1949, there were enough donkeys for them to officially be declared a pest. [1] There were almost 5 million feral donkeys in Australia in 2005. [2]
Donkeys are herbivores, and only eat vegetation. All year round, the donkeys graze for grass, shrubs, and tree bark. Donkeys usually graze for 6 to 7 hours a day and can go a fair distance from water sources. [1] There are over 1 million donkeys living in Australia, which means that the donkeys eat a significant amount of vegetation. [1] The donkeys can readily find food in winter if it is wet; however food is much less plentiful in times of drought.
The donkeys seriously affect the environment they live in. [3] Their presence can cause a wide range of problems: they may spread weeds by carrying seeds in their hair and feces, they may damage vegetation through overeating, they may foul watering holes in the drought season, and they can cause erosion with their hard hooves. [1] These damages, particularly those to the watering holes, have the potential to make native plants and animals locally extinct. The donkeys also affect local agriculture. They sometimes can over eat pasture grasses and destroy fences. They are also known to infect domestic animals with diseases.
On the contrary to above, some researchers claim that donkey's ecological niche, like that of other introduced large herbivores, may also correspond to lost niches of extinct Australian megafauna and benefit native ecosystem. [4]
Since the donkeys in Australia are considered a pest, they are often controlled by being mustered. Helicopters with highly trained and accredited shooters have replaced this technique in places where the terrain makes mustering too difficult. [5] Also seeing some limited use is fertility control. This, however, is difficult with large numbers of undomesticated animals and it is unknown whether this technique will make a difference on such a large number of animals. [1] Some good cattle breeders are using donkeys against dingos and foxes. There is some trafficking of donkey skin for making donkey-hide gelatin in traditional Chinese medicine. [6]
Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves, or nature reserves. It can also be caused by immobile, travel restricted populations of native or non-native wild animals.
The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, Equus africanus, and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, Equus africanus asinus, or as a separate species, Equus asinus. It was domesticated in Africa some 5000–7000 years ago, and has been used mainly as a working animal since that time.
The onager, also known as hemione or Asiatic wild ass, is a species of the family Equidae native to Asia. A member of the subgenus Asinus, the onager was described and given its binomial name by German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1775. Five subspecies have been recognized, one of which is extinct.
A feral animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some cases, contributed to extinction of indigenous species. The removal of feral species is a major focus of island restoration.
Equus, is a genus of mammals in the family Equidae, which includes horses, donkeys, and zebras. Within the Equidae, Equus is the only recognized extant genus, comprising seven living species. Like Equidae more broadly, Equus has numerous extinct species known only from fossils. The genus most likely originated in North America and spread quickly to the Old World. Equines are odd-toed ungulates with slender legs, long heads, relatively long necks, manes, and long tails. All species are herbivorous, and mostly grazers, with simpler digestive systems than ruminants but able to subsist on lower-quality vegetation.
Invasive species in Australia are a serious threat to the native biodiversity, and an ongoing cost to Australian agriculture. Numerous species arrived with European maritime exploration and colonisation of Australia and steadily since then.
The kiang is the largest of the Asinus subgenus. It is native to the Tibetan Plateau, where it inhabits montane and alpine grasslands. Its current range is restricted to the plains of the Tibetan plateau; Ladakh; and northern Nepal. Other common names for this species include Tibetan wild ass, khyang and gorkhar. Travellers' accounts of the kiang are one inspiration for the unicorn.
A brumby is a free-roaming feral horse in Australia. Although found in many areas around the country, the best-known brumbies are found in the Australian Alps region. Today, most of them are found in the Northern Territory, with the second largest population in Queensland. A group of brumbies is known as a "mob" or "band".
Australian feral camels are feral populations of dromedaries in Australia. Imported from British India and Afghanistan during the 19th century for transport and construction during the colonisation of the central and western parts of Australia, many were released into the wild after motorised transport replaced the use of camels in the early 20th century, resulting in a fast-growing feral population.
The African wild ass or African wild donkey is a wild member of the horse family, Equidae. This species is thought to be the ancestor of the domestic donkey, which is sometimes placed within the same species. They live in the deserts and other arid areas of the Horn of Africa, in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. It formerly had a wider range north and west into Sudan, Egypt, and Libya. It is Critically Endangered, with about 570 individuals existing in the wild.
A feral horse is a free-roaming horse of domesticated stock. As such, a feral horse is not a wild animal in the sense of an animal without domesticated ancestors. However, some populations of feral horses are managed as wildlife, and these horses often are popularly called "wild" horses. Feral horses are descended from domestic horses that strayed, escaped, or were deliberately released into the wild and remained to survive and reproduce there. Away from humans, over time, these animals' patterns of behavior revert to behavior more closely resembling that of wild horses. Some horses that live in a feral state but may be occasionally handled or managed by humans, particularly if privately owned, are referred to as "semi-feral".
Asinus is a subgenus of Equus that encompasses several subspecies of the Equidae commonly known as wild asses, characterized by long ears, a lean, straight-backed build, lack of a true withers, a coarse mane and tail, and a reputation for considerable toughness and endurance.
Conservation grazing or targeted grazing is the use of semi-feral or domesticated grazing livestock to maintain and increase the biodiversity of natural or semi-natural grasslands, heathlands, wood pasture, wetlands and many other habitats. Conservation grazing is generally less intensive than practices such as prescribed burning, but still needs to be managed to ensure that overgrazing does not occur. The practice has proven to be beneficial in moderation in restoring and maintaining grassland and heathland ecosystems. The optimal level of grazing will depend on the goal of conservation, and different levels of grazing, alongside other conservation practices, can be used to induce the desired results.
The feral goat is the domestic goat when it has become established in the wild. Feral goats occur in many parts of the world.
Grazing pressure is defined as the number of grazing animals of a specified class per unit weight of herbage. It is well established in general usage.
The Barmah National Park, formerly Barmah State Park, is a national park located in the Hume region of the Australian state of Victoria. The park is located adjacent to the Murray River near the town of Barmah, approximately 225 kilometres (140 mi) north of Melbourne. The park consists of river red gum floodplain forest, interspersed with treeless freshwater marshes. The area is subject to seasonal flooding from natural and irrigation water flows.
Feral goats are an invasive animal species in Australia. First arriving in the 18th century with European settlers, feral goat populations originated from escaped domestic individuals. Today, feral goats are found across Australia, where they cause economic and environmental damage through overgrazing and competition with livestock and native marsupials.
The Pryor Mountains Wild Horse Range is a refuge for a historically significant herd of free-roaming mustangs, the Pryor Mountain mustang, feral horses colloquially called "wild horses", located in the Pryor Mountains of Montana and Wyoming in the United States. The range has an area of 39,650 acres (160.5 km2) and was established in 1968 along the Montana–Wyoming border as the first protected refuge dedicated exclusively for mustangs. It was the second feral horse refuge in the United States. About a quarter of the refuge lies within the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. A group of federal agencies, led by the Bureau of Land Management, administers the range.
Australia has a population of about 25 million, with recent survey estimating between 200,000 and 350,000 recreational hunters in the country. There are around 5.8 million legally owned guns in Australia, ranging from airguns to single-shot, bolt-action, pump-action, lever-action or semi-automatic firearms.
Brumby shooting or brumbies shooting is the practice of eradicating feral horses, or "brumbies", in Australia. It has been conducted since the 1800s, and continues into the present day. The term "brumby" was first recorded in the 1870s. Reasons for brumby shooting include, but are not limited to: demands for grazing land and water for domestic herds, sport, to maintain pastoral stations, to reduce environmental damage caused by the horses, to control disease, and to prevent possible road collisions.