00:01Along the Muir Highway in WA's south, there's a unique hazard road users must watch out
00:07for – feral horses.
00:10Some conservationists are calling for the state to control numbers before it's too late.
00:16Claiming a spike in the population in recent years is putting the environment and people
00:21at risk.
00:22There have been a number of incidents with motorists using the Muir Highway actually
00:27having collisions with horses, one of which resulted in a horse having to be euthanised
00:33on the side of a road.
00:34Local families believe the horses have roamed the area since the late 1800s.
00:39Some of those horses were commandeered and bought for the Boer War, so some of the first horses
00:44from West Australia in the Boer War are linked to the descendants that are still here today
00:48of the Wild Brumbies.
00:49Those familiar with the horses reject the idea of the population boom in the region.
00:55I would say that's glaringly obvious they haven't done their homework.
00:59Good girl!
01:00Sheila Greenwell has rescued and rehabilitated 30 of the Lake Muir horses over the years,
01:06and still has three on her Kawaramup property.
01:09It's a numbers game when it comes to environmental degradation.
01:12I don't believe there that the numbers are high enough for that to be relevant.
01:17The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions says it doesn't know how many
01:23of the elusive feral horses are in the area.
01:27It says it's monitoring the situation but wouldn't say if it was planning a cull or if there had
01:33been an increase in incidents.
01:35students.
