Contested Realities: Feral Horses in Outback Australia

Abstract

Abstract Prior to 1980, feral horse numbers in the Northern Territory of Australia were thought to be low, between 40,000 and 60,000. Based on research done by an American geographer, these estimates should have been critically scrutinized by Australian scientists. They were, however, accepted uncritically. Then in the early 1980s, helicopter censuses showed that the feral horse population was more than 200,000, a figure that, when adjusted upward to 238,000, became the basis for urging pastoralists to join with the Territory's conservation commission to sharply reduce the number of horses. But because of public outcry, the unwillingness of pastoralists to participate in a horse-reduction program, and a slow-footed conservation commission, virtually nothing was done. By the late 1980s, the “problem” of feral horses had been redefined. Without supporting data or good reason to believe that large numbers of horses had died through drought or other means, the estimate of horse numbers was adjusted downward to 70,000. The reasons for this redefinition are social and political, and were unrelated to new biological knowledge or the available technical means to dramatically reduce horse populations. While this narrative of contested realities might be seen by some as exemplary of these postmodernist times, this would be an inappropriate inference.