Galicia’s wild horses in peril

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Before Achilles found glory and Odysseus eventually found his way home, someone had to compose the Iliad and Odyssey. But was their credited author, Homer, even real? Hi, I'm Greg Jenner, host of You're Dead to Me, the comedy show that takes history seriously, and we are travelling back to 8th century BCE to trace the origins of the Iliad and Odyssey, epic poems that became backbones of Western literature. Join me and my fantastic guests as we unpack the stories of ancient Greek culture, war and triumph and have a laugh while we do it. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

0:41Thank you. Bye.

0:46Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. Hi, you're welcome. That sound is people queuing up already, waiting for the ticket office to open to buy their tickets for the day, which I believe are going to be five euros each. The ambulance is parked up in case there are any accidents. And there are some people with red T-shirts on, and on the back in white a picture of three horses, and above that the words Basha das Bestas, which means the bringing down of the beasts. They're all preparing for today's rapa de asbestas, the shearing of the beasts. We should buy our tickets. I know, but...

1:33Luisito is with us. This is Assignment from the BBC, and I'm John Murphy. You used to organise this for many years. How many years? 35 years, he's saying.

1:50We did build the place, so the new people that came, they're just going with it. And the place he's talking about is the Kuro, which is basically an arena, where eventually the horses will be squeezed into, and then the Rapa can begin. You just heard my colleague Esperanza and Luisito, a retired postman, but I don't want to give everything away at this point about the Kuro and the Rapa.

2:20No prizes for guessing it's a story with horses at its centre. These are the foals who have been separated from their mothers.

2:32They were penned up in this stone enclosure. I guess they're wondering what's going on.

2:43Don't worry, no animal was harmed. These aren't your usual horses, mind you. The caballos in this region of Spain are from Europe's largest herd of wild horses. They roam free in the mountains of Galicia, in the northwest of the country. Once a year, though, local villagers bring them down to take part in a special festival, a Rapa de Asbestas, like this one, in the parish of Amil. Luisito, how much would you say it's part of Galician culture?

3:19We've been doing this for a lifetime, so it's part of our culture, and Galicia is the only place where you can find these kind of festivals and these horses. So if we get rid of them, it won't be Galicia. But there are clouds on the horizon. Fewer villages are staging these rapper festivals, and importantly, the numbers of wild horses are diminishing. That's bad news for the local culture, the environment and the landscape, as we'll hear. But also the horses play an important role in helping control forest fires, which have become more dangerous in recent years. A couple of days before Amil's Rapa, most of the horses have already been herded off the mountain.

4:12The horses are now gathered in this seven hectares field, surrounded by this fence, but normally they're roaming free in these mountains around. Do you actually own these horses? Yes, I used to have a lot of them, I have fewer now, but since for at least 90 years my family has had horses. So Luisito, explain to me, these are wild horses, part of the biggest herd of wild horses in Europe. How do you own them as well?

4:55Because they are identified. We used to do it with iron. So branding mark, yes. But now, with these under a new law, they have a microchip. That's the law that comes from the region. Here what we have is communities of mountains. And every community has its horses. But as there are no fences in between them, they roam free. And that's what makes them wild. How many horses are there altogether? Do we know?

5:33So at some point we had 400 horses in my community, but nowadays we have around 140, something like that. We've lost a lot of them due to the eucalyptus, due to the wolves as well. Wolves? Lobos.

5:54Yes, wolves. They killed a lot of the horses. A lot. How long ago did you have like 400? It was a while ago. maybe 20 years ago. So in 20 years, you've gone from, in your community, 400 down to 140. That's a big, big reduction. It has been a dramatic reduction, but it's a general thing that is happening. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Malo. Malo. Bad. It's a bad thing because the rapas are made by the horses, so if we don't have horses, we can have rapas. There's a lot to unpick. Eucalyptus, wolves, regional laws, ownership. They're all having an impact on Galicia's wild horses. Luisito takes us to see them.

6:46Some of them have got bells around their necks. They have the bells because when they're in the middle of the woods, you wouldn't know where they are. Others have GPS collars. Spectacular. says Luisito. He clearly loves being around these wild animals. I like it. I very much like it. I was born in the middle of them, so I like it very much. It's anything special about these horses. Are they different to other horses? Yes, these horses are smaller and they are tougher. They are like horses from the mountain. And they have long manes. They have very long manes, don't they? And what we can see here are, how many?

7:41A few dozen horses. They're scattered around. There are many light brown ones, some dark brown ones, some white ones. And the other telling thing is, there are lots of little foals, baby horses. Do people make money out of these horses? No. No, people don't have it for money. No, people don't have them because they make money. They have it for the tradition to have this festival. One of these little horses is 100 euros. It doesn't have any economic value, he says. Luisito assures me it's safe to approach them. Here we are, just a few metres away from these horses. He's right, they're not very tall.

8:31They're munching away on the grass, some of them rolling about on their backs, sort of scratching themselves. They look fine, but they could be better. They could be a bit more fat. But they're in good condition because they're treated and we take care of them. Get rid of the parasites, I heard. Yes.

8:58They're coming very close, just a metre away now. Wondering what I'm about. And she's got some vegetation stuck in her mane. Bits of fern. I'll keep away because she's got a foal with her. The two of them putting themselves between me and the foal. They're very lovely. Definitely got that horsey smell about them. In the last 50 years, Galicia's wild horse population has dropped from 22 ,000 to around 10 ,000 today. Luisito's family used to have around 50 of them. He's only got half a dozen left. They weren't all killed by wolves, but he does largely blame the pressure put on by wolves and eucalyptus.

9:46So this is a place more degraded than you can visit here. Yes, I mean, it looks very dry now. Very dry. It has been cut six months ago, and the machinery has destroyed a lot of the soil. Laura Lagos is a forestry engineer and a researcher at the University of Acorunia in the north of the region. She's involved in conserving heathlands and peat bogs. This is draining, draining, draining the peat. Laura's also a specialist in Galician wild horses. Here in the mountains of the Serra da Groba in the south of Galicia, she's leading a team of volunteers. They're trying to recover a peat bog. And what they are doing now is to treat with tools manually the eucalyptus.

10:39Yeah, right here, I'm banging it with my foot, there's a great stump from a eucalyptus tree which has been chopped down. I can see that they've peeled back the bark. with the tools, and this will kill... They need to destroy the cambium, that is the layer between the bark and the wood, to avoid regrowing. The regrowth of the tree. Because you're removing the protective layer from the tree, so then all the funguses can get in and destroy it. Originally brought from Australia in the 19th century, nowadays you can find eucalyptus trees right across Galicia, Row upon row of new plantations climb up the hills.

11:22The wood is chiefly used to feed paper pulp factories. Yes, in this mountain range many eucalyptus were planted but with fires the eucalyptus spreads. So after each fire the stands are bigger, larger and larger and larger so you can see that this eucalyptus has not been planted but they are here anywhere. The trees have dried up native peatlands, themselves useful in capturing carbon and acting like sponges gently releasing water for local villages. In addition, in the Serra de Agroba we have a population of about 1 ,300 horses, wild horses. And you see that year after year they have less area to live on.

12:13So preserving these areas with vegetation that is able to provide them with food is essential. If we want to maintain the rest of the mountain line, we need the horses to preserve these habitats. The eucalyptus has replaced the vegetation Galicia's wild horses depend on, squeezing their territory. At the same time, the horses are avoiding biomass to get accumulated in the shrubs. They control the gorse. The gorse is very pyrophytic. Yes. In other words, it burns. Exactly. So are you saying that the main use of the horses, the main function of the horses for the people, is to control the fires?

12:59That is one use. They have other values, cultural values, biological values. It's a horse very adapted to this land with specific characteristics. So they have a huge value on themselves. So these horses are a very good way of maintaining this habitat, basically. The best way. The best way. And you can't do it with machines or with people? No, because you need the natural solutions. Horses are a natural solution. It's not sustainable to be cutting and cutting and cutting. They do it by themselves, and actually they don't need that people take care of them, because they can't survive in the mountain without the aid of people.

13:46They are a native species, a wild species. They don't need the people to survive here. Here you can hear how dry all this is. branches mainly of eucalyptus trees. And I can see growth regrowing from some stumps here, which this is what they're trying to clear. An economic study estimated that the clearing work each wild horse does preventing fires would cost between 8 ,000 and 10 ,000 euros per year if humans had to do it. And the thing about eucalyptus is that it loves a good fire. So we've reached the site of the latest fire that Sergio and his colleagues have had to deal with. It's on the hillside of eucalyptus trees.

14:40The ground's all blackened. It smells of burning. Quite a few of the trees are still standing, but the smaller ones are all blackened quite a way up their trunks. So how big was this fire?

14:59Sergio Martins is a brigade leader in Galicia's Forest Fire Department. They managed to get this one under control in a few hours.

15:11For this fire, we brought a lot of brigades, trucks, helicopters, even plains full of water to extinguish it as fast as we can. Here we've got a lot of eucalyptus trees. Are they a real threat in terms of fires? Yes, definitely eucalyptus is a threat. Because it's... Paraphytic. Yeah, it burns very easily. And as you can see, the eucalyptus is designed for it. You can actually see the skin of the eucalyptus here. It's designed in a way that the flares would go up the tree. Yes. And it will survive. And it actually lights the fire because it makes it survive and kill the rest of the competition.

15:59If we look up this particular tree we're right in front of, there it is, you can see the bark which hangs down in little strings which look very easy to light. and then so it's very easy for the flames to climb up the tree and yet the tree survives. So would you, as a farmer, would you prefer to see a lot more of the indigenous trees, you know, the oaks and the chestnuts? Yes, definitely. When the fire meets the indigenous woodlands, the intensity of the fire lowers and lowers. That's an area we call of opportunity because that's when we can go in and start attacking the fire. Do you, as a farmer, recognise that these wild horses could help control fires?

16:47Yes, they do help us a lot, actually, because they eat the vegetation. For example, in a place like this where we have had this fire, horses cannot access because of the vegetation and the trees. And in areas where they can, they're very useful because they eat the gorge and the vegetation, and they also open ways and they go to places where a tractor can access and also they do it for free in 24 hours a day. Well done, horses. You're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service. Before Achilles found glory and Odysseus eventually found his way home, someone had to compose the Iliad and Odyssey.

17:37but was their credited author Homer even real? Hi, I'm Greg Jenner, host of You're Dead to Me, the comedy show that takes history seriously and we are travelling back to 8th century BCE to trace the origins of the Iliad and Odyssey, epic poems that became backbones of Western literature. Join me and my fantastic guests as we unpack the stories of ancient Greek culture, war and triumph and have a laugh while we do it. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. Bye.

18:10This is Assignment. I'm John Murphy in Galicia in northwest Spain. In recent weeks, thousands of hectares of Galicia have gone up in flames. Many fires are started deliberately for hunting or to great pasture for livestock or perhaps an argument between neighbours. Some of the biggest fires are caused by lightning strikes on abandoned land and in eucalyptus plantations. With climate change, the danger of extreme weather events and high temperatures has risen. It's not good news for the wild horses. And as Luisito mentioned, there's another threat. Wolves, wolves. Wolves, wolves. Laura, everybody talks about wolves killing the horses.

18:57I believe there are no wolves in this specific area, but in other areas there are wolves. Are they a big problem? Yes, the horse, the foals, are the main prey of the wolves in Galicia in the areas where both species coexist. In our studies, we observed that the wolves positively select the foals. If they have the same amounts of available cattle and horses, they are going to select horses. So they ignore the cattle and they go for the horses? I prefer the horses. They are the main prey. What is the impact in terms of, like, numbers of kills? In the results of my PhD thesis, we observed that about 60 % of the fowls born were predated by the wolves.

19:5160%, that's a huge number. Yes, but many years after that, I started to work in the Sistral area, and there the predation is still stronger. It can reach 80 % of the falls. Wow. And this is actually a thing that is not contemplated in the strategies when the government drafts a proposal for wolf conservation. They don't take into account that they are predating on horses. They say they prey on cattle, on livestock, and we need to take measures to protect the livestock. But you understand that these wild horses cannot be protected with the standard measures. They cannot be closed in the night. They cannot have massive dogs to protect them.

20:44So it's very difficult to protect them with artificial measures from wolves. The only thing that we think that we should work on is to increase the population of horses, then the percentage of false predated can get down. Simply by force of numbers. Yes, the force of numbers, exactly. And also, if we manage the horses a lot, if we capture them ten times a year because we want to move them or put them in pastures, is worse because they need to learn to protect themselves in their home range. I think that we are domesticating these white horses in the last years. And as we domesticated them more, they are more vulnerable to wolves.

21:36Each time we transform our land for a more intensified use, we are losing more than what we gain. I'm Jaime Fagundes. I am a botanist and plant ecologist. I am a professor and researcher at the University of Acorunia here in Galicia, in northwest Spain. Do you fear for the future of these horses in Galicia? Yes, we do. What we see is that the traditional management is changing or is being abandoned. Both things are bad. Also, everything around the horses seems to go against them. Like, each regulation that comes out is bad news for horses. Each new project delivered by our government or different companies like a new huge paper pulp factory in the center of Galicia, not far from here, that is going to put a lot of pressure on the scars remaining areas with no eucalyptus, because it's going to demand a lot of eucalyptus, and that has to be planted somewhere.

22:58So from any perspective that you look at it, everything looks bad for the wild horses system in Galicia. With clouds drifting across the top of the Serra da Groba, Laura shows us the horses in their high heathland natural habitat. So we stop by the side of the road, Laura, and here's a bunch of wild horses. yes we can see the stallion there the stallion still got a long mane yes the only one that has still a long mane and you can see the falls that were born this year and they are mainly eating grass grazing but you can see some there that are browsing on the gorge yes you can see how the mats of girls have this shape.

23:53They're rounded, they're rounded, because they've been eaten. And all the female horses, they have their manes cut. And why do they cut the manes off? Well, in the past, that was a product. They were taking the manes to sell them. They were used for mattresses, for ropes. And today, I think it's cultural. They think that it's better for the horses to cut the manes. They say that all the figs and the flies stay in the mane. And if you cut the mane, it's better for them. They even become stronger. It's something that was always done like that, and they still do it. Dozens of ancient rock carvings, 3 ,000 or 4 ,000 years old, have been discovered in the region.

24:45They portray, for example, a stick figure of a man on a horse, holding what looks like a spear, hunting other horses. Another carving appears to show a bunch of these wild horses corralled together in an enclosure, evidence, some say, of an early rapper.

25:07Oh, here they come. Hundreds of them. You can hear them, probably, some of them with bells around their necks. The rapper's about to begin. They've all been herded into the arena, the curro. Now the people are pushing to get in.

25:27It's quite a sight. The 170 or so wild horses are collected inside a circular pen with metal barriers, while a few thousand spectators take their seats around this gladiatorial arena. The so-called aloatadores, the fighters, these are humans.

25:53So two guys have just leapt onto a horse, bareback, grabbing hold of its mane at the moment. Some more guys have joined in. There's a wrestle going on, a tussle, and they're trying to pull it to the ground. and it's a little brutal. Somebody's yanking on the tail, others are at the neck, and they are literally, yes, and the chair goes up. Success.