An autopsy of a dead wallaby found in Waikato found it was likely being kept as a pet, prompting a warning from the council against “simply irresponsible” behaviour.<\/p>\n
The dama wallaby was spotted in Frankton on Monday, March 3 \u2013 its body was later found by Waikato Regional Council biosecurity staff with an immature joey in its pouch. <\/p>\n
The council said an autopsy of the animal indicated that it may have been fed domestic vegetables. The results of further testing were expected to take some time. <\/p>\n
Waikato Regional Council senior biosecurity officer Dave Byers said it was “simply irresponsible” to keep pests like wallabies as pests. <\/p>\n
“These animals are hard to contain, and the damage they can cause is costly, both environmentally and financially,” he said. <\/p>\n
Wallabies destroy native bush by feeding on seedlings, ferns, and grasses, depriving native birds and animals of shelter. <\/p>\n
“In large numbers, they can also cause problems for forestry and farming by feeding on pine and eucalyptus seedlings and competing with stock for pasture,” the council said. <\/p>\n
Byers said that because the wallaby was carrying a joey, there were concerns that others might be in captivity at a private residence. <\/p>\n
Biosecurity officers have canvassed Frankton and urged locals to report wallaby sightings. <\/p>\n
Under the Biosecurity Act, wallabies are classified as an unwanted organism, and possession of a live animal is illegal unless you have an exemption. Exemptions are normally only considered for petting zoos and wildlife parks that meet a “certain stringent criteria”. <\/p>\n
\u201cWaikato Regional Council is very unlikely to grant an exemption to the rules for people wanting to keep wallabies as pets,” Byers said. <\/p>\n
\u201cFurthermore, if people are caught knowingly flouting these rules, they could face hefty fines or imprisonment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Breaking biosecurity laws could result in fines ranging from $5000 to $100,000 or, in some cases, a maximum prison term of five years. <\/p>\n
The council said it was “working hard” to control outlier populations and prevent the pests’ spread to the Bay of Plenty. <\/p>\n
“Illegal movement of animals has the potential to jeopardise these efforts,” the council said. <\/p>\n
Wallabies were first introduced to New Zealand from Australia in the 1800s. They were initially introduced for hunting, private zoos, and the value of their skins.<\/p>\n
With no natural predetors their population has skyrocketed. According to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, there were more than 1 million wallabies in the wild in New Zealand. <\/p>\n
Three species \u2013 the Dama wallaby, the Parma wallaby, and Bennett’s wallaby \u2013 are available for hunting in New Zealand. <\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including a massive cyclone bears down on Queensland, and are the Spice Girls making a comeback? (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An autopsy of a dead wallaby found in Waikato found it was likely being kept as a pet,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,2929,92467,128,338],"class_list":["post-549689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-conservation","tag-hamilton-waikato","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}