Should we worry about wallabies?

AST summer, a request from Post reporter Joel Moore for help confirming the identity of an animal photographed on the outskirts of the village of Calverton sparked a flurry of interest and interviews.

- By ERIN MCDAID Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust

The animal in question was a wallaby and my initial response was one of surprise.

Assuming it to be an escaped individual, my early comments to the media were guided more by knowledge that introduced species often have unforeseen negative impacts on native species rather than any information suggesting that wallabies were likely to pose a threat to native species.

However, the mere suggestion that if established in numbers wallabies could pose a threat triggered a spirited defence of these antipodean arrivals by a columnist in a national Sunday newspaper.

The columnist postulated that the conservation sector was prejudiced against nonnatives and that we should instead worry about impacts from housing development, pesticides and habitat fragmentation.

While these are very much worthy of concern, to idly dismiss the impact of unwelcome incomers is to ignore the fact that invasive nonnative species are amongst the top five reasons for the global biodiversity decline.

The establishment of a nonnative species can precipitate a tipping point for native species already under pressure.