Heat-sensing cameras could be used to better track brumby numbers in a national park where feral horses are shot from a helicopter at a rate of dozens per day, an inquiry into the practice has been told.
NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said observers would take to the air to count, rather than shoot, brumbies in Kosciuszko National Park in late October.
"We're looking at how we can improve the count all the time," she told a parliamentary inquiry this week.
New methods to estimate the number of brumbies in the park will be trialled and the use of thermal cameras explored.
"That will be important going forward given that the numbers are smaller and it is more challenging in terms of accuracy," Ms Sharpe said.
The NSW government has a legislated target to bring feral horse numbers in the park to fewer than 3000 by mid-2027.
Across the border in the ACT, there is a zero-tolerance approach to any brumbies.
The federal government has flagged setting a similar approach in NSW if its plan does not work.
Ms Sharpe also gave updated figures on how many horses had been "removed" from the park.
Some 5963 horses have been shot from the air up to July 26, she told the inquiry.
More than 1000 more were shot on the ground and a similar number were rehomed as part of the almost 9000 horses that have been removed from the park since November 2021, when a plan to manage feral horses there was adopted.
An amendment to allow aerial shooting was added in October.
Aerial shooting is not currently occurring due to snowy weather.
"Some operations may occur again before October," Ms Sharpe said.
Feral horses are being targeted for removal due to concerns they are pushing unique native species towards extinction.
"Feral horses could be the final factor in the extinction of several Australian native plants and animals," a federal inquiry reported before NSW allowed them to be shot from the air again.
