Here's why some advocates and biologists say Yukon's wild horses should be considered a native species

Wild horses in the Yukon are classified by the territory as "feral animals," but some advocates and biologists want to change that, saying the animals should be considered a native species. 

"'Feral' ... has a negative connotation, and just isn't an accurate word for them, since the current wild horses have never been domesticated," said Heather Brown, of the Friends of the Yukon Wild Horses Society.  

Wild horses in the Yukon are found around the Ibex Valley, west of Whitehorse. The society keeps track of the animals with trail cams and has identified 21 horses in the herd, though the exact number of animals is not clear.

Those animals have been "completely wild" for about 30 years according to the society, but it's not known whether they are descended from outfitters' horses that became feral decades ago, or can be traced back to horses from the Klondike Gold Rush era.

The horses are afforded some protections under the Animal Protection and Control Act, which makes it illegal to hurt or kill them. However, they are managed differently than other ungulates, like caribou, elk and bison, which are considered wildlife and are managed under the Wildlife Act, says the Yukon's Department of Environment. 

Aud Fischer, another member of the Friends of the Yukon Wild Horses Society, says that some people view wild horses as an invasive species. She disagrees because Yukon was also home to wild horses during the last ice age.  

"They are viewed as feral because they've had the 4,000 or 5,000 years of domestication in between," Fischer said. "And so people, a lot of people, view them as invasive and a danger to ecosystems and as nuisance animals."

She believes wild horses should be considered a "reintroduced native species" and wants the Yukon government to develop a "humane management plan" to protect them. 

The Wildlife Act protects vertebrate animals that are "wild by nature," says the Department of Environment — excluding wild horses. The Yukon Conservation Data Centre, which collects data on vulnerable or at-risk species to inform conservation plans, also does not collect the such data for wild horses, because they are considered feral.

That means that right now, wild horses in the territory do not have a conservation status and there is no management plan in place for them. However, if they were to be considered a native species that could change.

The status of Yukon's wild horses also reflects a larger debate about the origins of wild horses across North America and comes at a time when the concept of a native species is changing. 

However, the debate is contentious, as there is also evidence that wild horses could have a negative ecological impact if populations reached a high enough threshold.

Ross MacPhee, a paleomammologist and curator emeritus of mammals at the American Museum of Natural History, says native species are those that originate in a particular area, or moved there naturally.

"'Nativeness' generally means animals or species that originated in a particular place and are therefore in the genes," MacPhee said. "But broadened also to include, bio-geographically, species that originated elsewhere but have moved into the area of interest, by their own means. In other words, humans weren't involved."