0 comments
Free-roaming horses might seem like unlikely aides in the face of such a challenging foe, but ecologists believe they have a critical role to play in mitigating future wildfire risks.
Thousands are currently trapped in an inferno thatβs gripping the Mediterranean.
This is expected to last for weeks as global temperatures soar and records continue to break.
In Spain, which has been sweltering since early July in highs of 45Β°C, wildfires have been burning out of control and mass evacuations have been increasing in frequency as a result.
Climate change is the primary cause, yet fast-acting solutions are few and far between.
One, however, shows great promise β and it may take you by surprise.
According to ecologists, free-roaming horses have a critical role to play in combatting this issue.
While they might seem like unlikely aides in the face of such a challenging foe, by eating long grass and shrubs, they reduce forest biomass, which is a potential fuel for the blazes that keep occurring.
βGrazing herbivores remove a lot of biomass and reduce the continuity of the vegetation layer, and thatβs really significant in fire risk,β says Christopher Johnson, who authored a 2018 paperΒ on rewilding for wildfire mitigation. βItβs a good way of localising fire and reducing its impact.β
In May, the conservation organisation Rewilding Spain introduced a herd of ten Przeqalskiβs horsesΒ (an endangered sub-species of equus ferus) to the Iberian Highlands. They are the last wild horses on Earth and will soon be free to roam around more than 5,700 hectares of public forest.
