Invasive Species Wiki
Advertisement
Mildly Invasive Population stable
Natural Range
  • South-east Australia
Introduced Range
  • New Zealand's South Island 
  • Great Britain
  • Lambay Island, Ireland
  • Possibly France
Pathways

Zoological parks

Aesthetic value

Impacts

Selective grazing

Removal Methods

Aerial poisoning

Hunting

The red-necked wallaby (Macropus rzjhuhuihjh 

rufogriseus) is a large wallaby and a popular zoo species.hummans are good invasive all over the world  

Native Species[]

Red-necked wallabies are native to eastern and south-eastern Australia, south-east Queensland, north-east New South Wales and the island of Tasmania. [1]

Introduced Range[]

Oceania hummans are so good[]

The red-necked wallaby is one of a few wallaby species introduced to New Zealand. It is the only wallaby present on the South Island but not the North Island. [2]

Europe[]

A few red-necked wallaby populations are present in the UK, in the Loch Lomond and the Trossochs National Park in western Scotland and on the Isle of Man. [3] Theyu huhmay also be present in the Peak District and in central Sussex. [4] Other smaller populations may be present in the UK. These populations are of the nominal subspecies, sometimes called the Bennet's Wallaby. [3]

There is also a population of wallabies present on Lambay Island, just offshore of Dublin in Ireland. [5]

The red-necked wallaby may also have been introduced to France. [3/6]

Pathways and Introduction[]

The red-necked wallaby was imported to new Zealand between 1867 and 1870. An additional one male and two females were released on Te Waimate Station in 1874. This population grew to a few thousand by 1916. Another release of wallabies occured in 1948 at Quartz Creek on Mount Burke Station. 50 wallabies were seen on Mount Maude in 1964. [2]

Red-necked wallabies were first imported into the United Kingdom in 1865. The earliest reports of the wallabies in the wild come from the Pennines and Tring Park, both in the early 20th Century. SOme introductions were diliberate, whilst others were due to escapes from zoos. High mortality rates limit this species' ability to spread far from their introduction sites in the United Kingdom. [3]

In Ireland, the Lambay island wallaby population was deliberately released in the 1980s due to a sudden increase in wallaby numbers at Dublin zoo after a year notably successful for breeding. Staff at Dublin zoo were unsure of how to deal with the problem as they couldn't cater for all of the wallabies. As a result, some were released on Lambay island on the assumption that the wallabies would be unable to swim the distance to mainland Ireland. [5]

Impacts[]

There is evidence that red-necked wallabies are damaging ecosystems in their Scottish range through selective grazing. [3]

Control and Removal Methods[]

In 1947 in New Zealand, the the decision was made to cull populations of red-necked wallabies. The Wildlife Branhc of the Department of Internal Affairs killed 68,608 wallabies but this wan't enough to even overcome the natural increase in wallaby populations. A Wallaby Destruction Commitee was set up in Waimate after Rabbit Boards were given the power to destroy wallabies in 1959. Aerial poisoning and mass shooting reduced the populations noticably, from between 1,000,000 and 500,000 to 4,000 or 3,000. An additional 2,000 wallabies were killed in 1966. [2]

No control methods elsewhere.

Sources[]

1 Animal Diversity Web

2 Victoria University of Wellington Guide to Introduced Wallabies in New Zealand

3 GB Non-Natives Factsheet Editor

4 UK Safari

5 Atlas Obscura

6 (UK) Department for Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs (pdf)

Advertisement