Australia's feral horse population poses a significant extinction threat to several native species, experts have warned.

The Threatened Species Scientific Committee (TSSC), which advises the federal government on endangered species, said that urgent action was needed to address the damage being done to sensitive ecosystems by brumbies in the Australian Alps.

Brumby is a free-roaming feral horse in Australia. Different from wild horses, the feral horses live in the wild but are the descendants of domestic horses. According to the government, Australia has an estimated 400,000 feral horses, and the large number of these hard-hoofed animals have threatened local ecology. 

The federal government in October last year, revealed a new threatened species recovery plan that included the goal of preventing any new extinctions of native species.

However, in a submission to a Senate inquiry into the damage caused by feral horses, the TSSC said brumbies pose an "imminent threat" to the goal of stopping new extinctions of plants and animals."

Feral horses trample vegetation and habitat and damage waterways along Australia's southeast.

The TSSC said they are a known threat to 12 animals – four fish, four reptiles, three frogs and one mammal – half of which are already critically endangered.

"Horses mess this habitat up in a way that the entire population is highly at risk unless we get serious," TSSC member Chris Johnson was quoted by the Guardian Australia on Monday.

"We could be looking on the map at a hotspot of extinction that we will regret. We need urgent management action to stop that from happening."

The state government of New South Wales has set a goal of reducing the number of horses in the Kosciuszko National Park, which encompasses much of the Alps, to 3,000.

The federal environment department said in its submission to the inquiry that the target was not on track, with 4,000 horses needing to be eradicated every year to achieve the goal.

(With input from Xinhua)

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