Friday, 27 January 2023 13:55

Biosecurity NZ launches campaign to stamp out wallaby populations

Written by  Staff Reporters
Biosecurity NZ has launched a new campaign targeting wallabies. Photo Credit: Ministry for Primary Industries. Biosecurity NZ has launched a new campaign targeting wallabies. Photo Credit: Ministry for Primary Industries.

Wallaby populations continue to grow in New Zealand, something which has prompted the launch of the first national awareness campaign.

The Tipu Mātoro: Wallaby-free Aotearoa is designed to shine a light on the extensive damage wallabies can wreak on the environment, asking Kiwis to report wallaby sightings.

John Walsh, Biosecurity New Zealand’s director of response says wallabies silently prey on the futures of forests and farms.

“We are working in partnership with regional councils, local iwi, farmers and landowners through Tipu Mātoro to manage and reduce populations, but we need everyone’s help.”

Walsh says estimates set the wallaby population at more than one million. However, because the animals are nocturnal and good at hiding, public reports are one of the best ways to manage the spread.

With no natural predators, two introduced species are causing millions in damage each year – the dama wallaby in Rotorua, and the Bennett’s wallaby in Canterbury and North Otago.

“If left unchecked, by 2025 wallabies would cost New Zealanders around $84 million a year in damage and over the next 50 years, they could spread through a third of the country,” Walsh says.

“Wallabies graze on bush undergrowth, and, when moving into an area, can quickly decimate new shoot growth, destroying our native species' habitats and food sources. What were once lush forest understories turn into barren wastelands, meaning that in the coming years our native bush won’t regenerate.

“And their impacts are felt beyond our native bush. They compete with livestock for food, damage fences, foul up pastures preventing it from being a food source, eat planted forest seedlings and contribute to erosion and poor water quality.”

Walsh says the campaign is part of the Tipu Mātoro: Wallaby-free Aotearoa Programme, which focuses first on stopping the spread of wallabies from known areas in the Bay of Plenty/Waikato and in South Canterbury/North Otago.

“By targeting populations outside these containment zones and following up on reported wallaby sightings, the programme can prevent new populations establishing elsewhere in Aotearoa.”

The programme is also undertaking the significant research required to understand wallaby behaviour in a New Zealand context, supporting effective containment and control.

To report a wallaby sighting, head to http://www.reportwallabies.nz/

More like this

Biosecurity NZ ready for a busy summer

Biosecurity New Zealand says that more officers, detector dogs, and airport hosts, accompanied by an enhanced public awareness campaign, will bolster New Zealand’s biosecurity protections this summer.

Pest confirmed on West Coast

A tropical insect pest with a big appetite for corn has been identified on the West Coast, the first time it has been found in the South Island.

Stink bug campaign ramps up

Biosecurity New Zealand says it is ramping up a public awareness campaign designed to encourage people to report possible sightings of brown marmorated stink bug.

Featured

Fonterra gives $250,000 for wetlands repair

Through its new partnership with New Zealand Landcare Trust, Fonterra has committed to funding ten $25,000 grants for wetland restoration in communities across the country.

Dairying deeply rooted in family

On the edge of the hot, dry Takapau plains, Norm and Del Atkins have cultivated a small but exceptional herd of 60 Holstein Friesian cows within their mixed breed herd of 360 dairy cows.

Mixed reaction to hiking levy rate

The DairyNZ board and management are currently trying to determine whether, and to what degree, their farmer levy payers will support any increase in their levy contributions.

National

Machinery & Products

Alpego eyes electric power harrow

Distributed by OriginAg in New Zealand, Italian manufacturer Alpego recently showed its three metre Alysium electric power harrow at the…

New seed drill tech coming

Incorporating Vaderstad's latest seed drill technology, the Proceed V 24, is said to improve precision and increase planting efficiencies for…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Waffle man

OPINION: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon sometimes can't escape his own corporate instinct for evasion, and in what should have been…

Banks on notice

OPINION: Shane 'Matua' Jones, crusader against all things woke, including "woke banks", couldn't have scripted it better when his NZ…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter