At Native Cat Flat in Victoria’s Alpine national park, four fenced-off areas show a strikingly different ecology, highlighting the damage wrought by more than 2,700 feral horses in the area. Behind the fences, lush sphagnum, dense vegetation, grass tussocks, shrubs and herbs thrive. Outside the plots, the ground is pockmarked with deep hoofprints, and the native grasses are overgrazed, exposing endangered animals in the area — which rely on dense vegetation — to predators‘Feral horses don’t know state borders’: the push to protect Victoria’s Alpine national park

Source: The Guardian February 17, 2024 20:35 UTC