Between 24 November 2021 and 30 June 2026, the New South Wales administration has removed 10,012 wild horses from Kosciuszko National Park, of which 6,673 have been shot from a helicopter. The most recent count, also carried out by helicopter in October–November 2025, still finds 10,309, i.e. more than the 2024 estimate. Note the scope: this figure concerns areas surveyed from the air, not the entire park.
The law requires reducing the population to 3,000 by 30 June 2027.
- Eight in ten horses removed were shot.
- The latest count estimates the population at 10,309 horses.
- The three overflown zones cover only about 37% of the park.
- The 2018 law protecting these horses was repealed in December 2025.
10,012 horses removed, eight in ten shot
The official tally up to 30 June 2026 covers just under five years of the program, i.e. roughly six horses removed per day since 24 November 2021. Of the 10,012 animals, 6,673 were shot from a helicopter and 1,156 on the ground: aerial shootings alone account for two-thirds of the total.
The verb “remove,” chosen by the administration, encompasses very different outcomes. The list counts 109 killings in enclosures, 70 animals tranquilized and then killed with a killing pistol, 56 euthanizations, 17 “other deaths,” and 672 sent to the rendering plant. Only 1,259 horses were placed with private individuals, about one in eight.
Eight in ten horses removed were shot.
When scaled to 100 animals, the picture reads differently. About 67 were shot from a helicopter and 12 on the ground. For 13 of them, the ending was with a private owner, and 7 went to rendering. The remaining 2 or 3 pertain to enclosures, euthanasies, and “other deaths.”
A count that refuses to fall
The October–November 2025 count was conducted by helicopter over three zones totaling 2,535 km², roughly 24 times the area of Paris. It estimates the population at 10,309 horses. The range, from 6,476 to 16,411, is wide: the high end is 2.5 times the low, and the best estimate does not sit at the middle of the spread, which would be 11,443.
This result surpasses the 2024 estimate. The administration nevertheless reads it as an overall decline since 2022. It attributes the difference to natural population growth and to reduced detection in 2024. Yet a horse that observers do not see is not a horse that has disappeared, which complicates year-to-year comparisons.
Further back in time, one finds 14,380 horses estimated in 2020 and about 18,000 in 2023. These two figures come from secondary sources and warrant caution.
Here, the helicopter plays a dual role. It serves as a firing platform, with 6,673 horses killed in this way, and as an observation post for the 2025 count. The program thus depends on the same type of aircraft both to act and to measure the consequences of the action.
These three zones account for only about 37% of the park.
The 10,309 horses thus say nothing about the un-surveyed sectors. They are not inconsequential, however: these zones alone surpass the 3,000-target by more than threefold. Even the lower end of the range, 6,476, is more than double.
Assuming the surveyed zones are representative of the entire park, more than 7,300 additional horses would still need to be removed to reach 3,000. The hypothesis remains to be proven, the range spanning, depending on the stance, from 3,476 to 13,411 horses too many.
An animal beloved by all, classified among the pests
Few animals are as cherished as the horse. On the New South Wales government site, the page devoted to it sits under the “pest animals” category. In 2018, a law protected it in the name of heritage.
This law was repealed in December 2025, after the October–November count.
The figures clash with another arithmetic, that of the fragility of the place. The park harbors 21 plant species found nowhere else, as well as the critically endangered Corroboree frog.
Emotion is not new. In 2000, the slaughter of 600 horses in three days in another park triggered an outcry. Kosciuszko’s tally lists 6,673 killings from a helicopter, more than eleven times that figure, but spread over nearly five years. Twenty-six years separate the two episodes.
A deadline that doesn’t budge
The schedule leaves little room. The official tally starts on 24 November 2021, and the target falls on 30 June 2027, i.e. about five years and seven months. As of 30 June 2026, more than 80% of the allotted time had already elapsed.
The plan, for its part, continues: the deadline of 30 June 2027 remains in place, with less than nine months to go from today. The repeal of the 2018 law deprives the brumbies’ defenders of a legal basis.
One last perspective: relative to the 2020 estimate of 14,380 horses, the 10,012 removals represent nearly 70%. Yet the 2025 count did not collapse by that extent. The comparison remains fragile, since the 2020 estimate comes from a secondary source and the 10,309 figure from 2025 covers only 37% of the park.
