Red-necked Wallaby - Introduction To Other Countries

Introduction To Other Countries

There is a small colony of red-necked wallabies on the island of Inchconnachan, Loch Lomond in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. This was founded in 1975 with two pairs taken from Whipsnade Zoo, and had risen to 26 individuals by 1993. There is also a group of wallabies living wild on the Isle of Man who are the descendants of a pair that escaped from a wildlife park on the island in the 1970s.

There are also colonies in England: in the Peak District, in Derbyshire, and in the Ashdown Forest, in East Sussex. These were established c.1900. There are also other smaller groups frequently spotted in West Sussex and Hampshire.

In France, in the southern part of the Forest of Rambouillet, 50 km (31 mi) west from Paris, there is a wild group of around 30 Bennett's Wallabies. This population has been present since the seventies, when some individuals escaped from the zoological park of Émancé after a storm.

In 1870, several wallabies were transported from Tasmania to Christchurch, New Zealand. Two females and one male from this stock were later released about Te Waimate, the property of Waimate's first European settler. The year 1874 saw them freed in the Hunters Hills, where over the years their population has dramatically increased. Wallabies are now resident on approximately 350,000 ha of terrain centered upon the Hunters Hills, including the Two Thumb Ranges, the Kirkliston Range and The Grampians. They are declared an animal pest in the Canterbury Region and land occupiers must contain the wallabies within specified areas.