Ten “spy wallabies” released by the Otago Regional Council in the Waitaki and Mackenzie districts are the latest attempt at controlling the population of the pest animal.

The initiative is a New Zealand first intended to bring down the number of Bennett’s wallabies, an invasive species of introduced pest.

Last week, 10 “seeker” wallabies were released onto sites in the two districts to lead hunters to more wallabies.

The council’s project delivery specialist for national programmes, Gavin Udy, said the council, Environment Canterbury and theTipu Mātoro National Wallaby Eradication Programme hoped the two-year research programme testing the usefulness of the seeker wallaby would provide a new tool in the battle against the pest.

“Tipu Mātoro’s research programme is all about improving existing wallaby detection, surveillance, and control methods, and finding new ones to address the pest wallaby problem,” he said.

“Finding wallabies across large landscapes and difficult terrain where there are few present is labour intensive.

“Any wallabies that go undetected allow small breeding populations to form and grow and become established over time.

“This is why it is critical that we develop new cost-effective tools to find wallabies in these environments.”

The Otago Regional Council (ORC) said that over the next 12 months, the seeker wallabies would be monitored by a hunting team to see if they led the hunters to other wallabies.

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

Using “seeker” animals as a method of pest control is commonly used with feral goats and tahr.

“If the technique can be used successfully for wallabies, which are moderately gregarious, it could make a significant difference to efforts to eradicate Bennett’s wallaby from Otago and South Canterbury, particularly in areas where we have very low wallaby numbers,” the council said.

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

“As part of the partnership, the Tipu Mātoro National Wallaby Eradication Programme is contributing an additional $100,000, while another programme partner, Environment Canterbury, is supporting the research through landowner consultation, DNA sampling and supplementary control work.”

The research is being conducted under approved permits from the Ministry for Primary Industries and the animal ethics committee of Lincoln University.

Permission to release the wallabies has been granted by landowners.

Members of the public are asked to report wallaby sightings, dead or alive, via reportwallabies.nz.