Wild horses have become a new and unlikely defence against fires in the Iberian Highlands. Recent summers have brought a spate of wildfires to Europe, but, with the hottest months approaching again, ecologists hope that horses can play a significant role in reducing the risk.
In 2023, the conservation group Rewilding Spain introduced a herd of 10 horses to the Iberian Highlands. The rare animals, known as Przewalski’s, went extinct in the wild, but were successfully reintroduced from European zoos. The horses now roam around more than 5,700 hectares of public forest, reducing the volume of combustible vegetation in the landscape.
They feed on the yellow flowers of gorse – a highly combustible plant. By "selectively clearing" it, the horses "help prevent wildfires", said Laura Lagos, a researcher at the University of A Coruna, whose 2021 study found that wild horse grazing was the most effective method for preventing wildfires.
But the history of wild horses in Galicia "dates back thousands of years" and rock carvings of horses being hunted by humans "suggest their presence in the region during the Neolithic period", said Al Jazeera.
In the 1970s, about 22,000 wild horses "roamed the region’s mountains, forests and heathlands", and the "growing risks" of climate change, habitat loss and "declining herd numbers" show the "urgent need" to protect both the horses and the ecosystems they sustain. | 
