One of the 10 ‘spy wallaby’ being tracked by the Otago Regional Council (ORC) has travelled 42km from Canterbury to Otago and is still on the run.

The council completed its first surveillance operation looking at whether spy wallaby will lead hunters to others.

Fitted with satellite GPS collars into sites in Waitaki and Mackenzie districts last year, marked a New Zealand first in the fight against Bennett’s wallaby, an invasive introduced pest.

The ORC is leading the project with support from Environment Canterbury and the Tipu Mātoro National Wallaby Eradication Programme.

It is hoped the two-year research programme testing the usefulness of spy wallaby will provide a new tool in the battle against this fast-breeding pest.

Last week, ORC’s aerial hunting team located nine of the 10 spy wallaby, where they found and destroyed 18 other wallaby. 

“While the results from this first hunt are encouraging, further hunts are still needed before we are able to fully assess whether this technique works,” project delivery specialist - national programmes Gavin Udy said.

“This first run is about getting out there and locating and eliminating any other wallaby around the spy wallaby and testing our methodology, and then integrating any improvements identified into future hunts. The first hunt went very successfully, and the team are looking forward to the next one in a month’s time,” he said.

The spy wallaby will continue to be monitored by a hunting team over the next 11 months to see if they lead the hunters to other wallabies.

Those other wallabies will then be shot, leaving the seeker wallaby to continue to seek out more wallabies until no more individuals can be found.  

The 10th ‘spy’ wallaby was not pursued as it was considered too close to nearby dwellings to hunt the area safely. 

ORC is investing $110,000 over two years in the field work component of this research, the potential benefits of which will far exceed that investment in terms of protecting Otago from wallaby spread and the damage they do to native bush, farms, crops, commercial forestry, and our biodiversity.

The research is being conducted under approved permits from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the Animal Ethics Committee at Lincoln University, and permission granted by landowners to release the wallabies.

There has been an increase of reported wallaby sightings in the past year, which is good news, and people are asked to keep an eye out and report wallaby sightings, dead or alive, and wallaby kills; as the more eyes on the ground the better to prevent wallabies becoming established in Otago.

The public are asked to report a sighting at: reportwallabies.nz

The next hunt is planned for the week of February 19, weather dependent.