database

Three years ago, KLF founding member Kelly Wilson created the Wild Kaimanawa Database to accumulate all the photographs she’d taken of the Kaimanawa herd from her time photographing them in the mountains. 

What started as a place to accumulate and study data, to better understand wild horse behaviour and herd structures, quickly developed into a passion project to record every Kaimanawa living in the Ranges. With the help of Eric Theodore (New Zealand Defence Force) and Tanesha Thompson (Kaimanawa Krazy), the database now has profiles on 445 horses currently living within the Counted Zones and another 44 from the Uncounted Zones, as well as 684 horses that have been mustered. Each of these profiles includes photos and information about the horse’s life in the wild, including its age and lineage, if known.

Over the years, the Wild Kaimanawa Database team has collectively dedicated thousands of hours to photographing the herd in the wild, studying over ten years of archive photos, matching horses within the database, and updating profiles every time we get information about the horses from NZDF or photographers during Ranges Trips. This comprehensive information allows us to keep track of the age and lineage of horses, understand the possible genetic structure of the herd, provide valuable insight into the secret lives of our nation’s horses and is going to be a key component in tracking the success of the immunocontraception trial over the coming years. 

The idea for the database came about from Kelly’s time spent observing one of the world’s most famous herds of wild horses, the Pryor Mountain Mustangs, in Montana, USA. Although the herd is small in size, at just 160 horses, these wild horses have truly captured the imagination of the public. For generations they have been well documented, and each year a Field Guide to the Pryor Mountain Wild Horses is available for the public to purchase,which is a powerful educational resource. 

This ability to personally connect to both the herd and the individual horses was something that Kelly had never seen elsewhere in the world, and it inspired her to give the same legacy to our own Kaimanawa herd. Now under the umbrella of the Kaimanawa Legacy Foundation, it is our greatest wish that the Wild Kaimanawa Field Guide allows an unprecedented insight into the secret lives of our nation’s most iconic herd, so the public can connect with the horses at an individual level — because in order for people to protect something, they first need to know that it exists and to feel personally invested in its plight.

During the 2021 and 2022 Kaimanawa Horse Musters, a printed version of the database was a valuable resource for DoC, KHH and NZDF, and we’re excited to offer the 2023 Edition to the public so they can also gain an intimate look into the Kaimanawa herd..