Where the bloody hell are ya? Search under way for wallaby at Long Bay Regional Park

Caroline Williams Reporter from North Shore Times

Kia ora neighbours. Auckland Council is investigating after receiving a report of a wallaby at Long Bay Regional Park.

The council will conduct a thermal imaging drone survey after a park volunteer claimed to have seen the wallaby, head of natural environment delivery Phil Brown​ said.

Wallabies are considered a pest under the Regional Pest Management Plan. It is illegal to breed, sell, move or exhibit them without a permit under the Biosecurity Act 1993.

There are wallaby populations in the Bay of Plenty, Waikato and South Canterbury areas and on Kawau Island in the Hauraki Gulf, however they are not established in mainland Auckland.

If there is a wallaby at the park, Brown said it was likely it would have been taken there by people.

“Given the seclusive nature of the wallaby, making it difficult to detect, and the significant threat they pose to our native biodiversity and primary production, the most efficient and effective course of action should a wallaby be detected is to shoot the animal.”

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