From the agencies

Spain’s wild horses in peril – in pictures

By grazing between trees and removing potential wildfire fuel, wild horses help protect Galicia’s delicate ecosystems, but Europe’s largest herd has declined to just 10,000

Locals and visitors herd wild horses towards an enclosure for the traditional rapa das bestas or ‘shearing of the beasts’ festival

Fire prevention is one of several roles wild horses play in preserving the northwestern region of Galicia’s delicate ecosystems, but Europe’s largest herd of wild horses has dwindled to less than half the 22,000 that roamed its mountains, forests and heathlands in the 1970s

On Serra da Groba heath 50 miles (80 kilometres) south-west of Barro, wild horses feast on the yellow flowers of gorse, selectively clearing an especially combustible plant

‘Studies show that where wild horses graze the heath’s biodiversity increases,’ Laura Lagos, a researcher at the University of A Coruna said. ‘They are a fundamental part of the ecosystem. They benefit both the flora and the fauna associated with these open spaces’

Every summer, locals round up the region’s roughly 10,000 wild horses for health checks, but the costs including vet fees, insurance, fencing, microchipping and GPS equipment for tracking, are multiplying

Joaquin Cabral and Cesareo Comesana deworm a wild horse

Wild horses graze on a wetland near Amil

Wild horses in gallop

Wild horses are enclosed before they are dewormed and have their manes cut during the rapa das bestas

Spectators watch the spectacle of the rapa das bestas

Carlos Janeiro, Pablo Silva and Angel Picallo during the shearing. ‘We are guardians doing it as a hobby. Our only aim is to preserve this animal that we believe is an ecological jewel’

Ainara Fernández Grela places her hand on a wild horse

Julio Pichel attends an early-morning mass to mark the beginning of the rapa das bestas

Modesto Dominguez Rodas, also known as ‘Terrible’ trims the hoof of a wild horse

Pilar Torres secures a bracelet made from the mane of a wild horse on a woman’s wrist

A girl is helped out of the enclosure with a sheared mane

People cut the mane of a wild horse

GPS collars ready to be fitted to wild horses after they have had their manes cut and are ready to head back to the mountains

Laura Lagos shows a map displaying how the herds of Galician wild horses divide the territory and establish grazing areas in Serra da Groba

A foal being branded

A wild horse is dewormed

Syringes used to administer deworming medicine to the horses ready to be used

Veronica Rubial Gandara, Sara Mourino Esperon and Judit Moraleda Garrido hold down a wild horse as they cut its mane

Martin Obelleiro Argibay and Adrian Quintela Mareque stand with a foal that is being sold

A petroglyph of a wild horse on a stone in Outeiro dos Lameiros, which has more than 30 such petroglyphs dating from 4000 BC. They are evidence that the creatures’ existence in Galicia dates back to the Neolithic period

The village of San Colmede, which was left untouched by fire, is surrounded by burnt trees. The blaze tore through eucalyptus and scrub in the hills, but grazing animals and slower-burning native oaks, sweet chestnuts and birches near the village acted as a natural shield

Photograph: Nacho Doce/Reuters

Firefighter Cesar Leiros walks through burnt land in San Colmede. ‘We saw the village surrounded by fire but thanks to native trees, the clearing we do, and the clearing our animals do, the village was saved’

A wild horse in a field where eucalyptus once grew. Most of the felled trees have been sent for processing in pulp mills

A wild horse crosses a road in Serra da Groba near Baiona

A wild horse grazes on gorse