A bay-coloured Danube Delta Wild Horse and a black one galloping through the Letea Forest of the Delta, in eastern Romania.
There is controversy surrounding these feral horses. Although there have been feral horses in the area for hundreds of years, their numbers were raised considerably when the horses which worked on communal farms in the area were freed and released to the wild when the farms were closed in 1990.
There are now about 4000 of the horses in the Delta area, 2000 of these in the Letea nature reserve alone. Over-grazing is perceived as a problem which can only get worse, affecting both cattle pasture and the natural balance of the wild environment.
There have been several instances of horses being rounded up and slaughtered and put into the human food chain in western Europe, including into countries which do not traditionally eat horse meat. Meat from these horses was found in hamburgers in UK shops during the ‘horse meat scandal’ of 2013. And although Romania has no equine stock farms, it is the third largest horsemeat exporter in Europe.
Alternative ways of dealing with the problems caused by the horses include a birth control programme, and looking for an alternative reserve which a proportion of the horses can be moved to. The horses are popular with many tourists to the area, and a scientific study has also been set up to quantify the amount of damage done by the horses rather than simply relying on anecdotal evidence.
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My original photo, from which this image was derived, is available to purchase as a stock photo from Alamy.
