SYDNEY, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Victoria state is rolling out a plan to protect its Alpine National Park eastern highland area from an estimated 2,500 feral horses by trapping, rehoming and culling the animals, authorities said on Saturday.

"Feral horses cannot be allowed to run rampant in the Alpine National Park -- their hard hooves damage the precious environment and destroy the habitats of threatened species," the state's Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D'Ambrosio said in a statement.

The plan, "which is backed by extensive scientific evidence," received about 1,000 submissions from stakeholders and the community, with more than 80 percent of responses expressing "support for managing the number of feral horses" to protect the state's largest national park and its "vulnerable ecosystems," according to a media release from the minister.

Neighboring New South Wales state authorities recently decided to reverse a similar plan to cull feral horses in the Snowy Mountains area in May, citing the need to recognize the "cultural significance" of the free-roaming brumbies descended from escaped or lost horses that date back to early European settlements.