Rise of the Manx wallaby leaves locals jumpy
More than 100 marsupials now occupy the Isle of Man leading to traffic accidents and calls for warning signs
WHEN two wallabies escaped from a local wildlife park on the Isle of Man in the Seventies, many people assumed they would be safely returned to the sanctuary in a matter of days.
Almost half a century later, calls are being made to warn drivers of the marsupials as their numbers are now predicted to have risen as high as 160.
Local wildlife experts and commissioners have called for signs to be introduced to help “stop the element of surprise” for motorists after it was revealed that the police had been called to a number of wallaby related incidents over the last five years.
Since the pair of wallabies escaped from a wildlife park their numbers have continued to grow because they face no natural predators on the island.
However, the wallabies have caused a string of calls to police ranging from cars being forced to swerve out around the animals to some having to be rescued from the sea.
The rise in incidents has prompted calls for more mechanisms to be put in place to protect the wallabies.
Sarah Teare-kermeen, chairman of Ballaugh Parish and animal keeper at Curraghs Wildlife Park, said local residents “have concerns about accidents” involving the wallabies. She said: “There need to be warning signs about the wallabies for drivers who may not be aware of their existence”, adding that locals had become specifically concerned about the safety threat to the annual TT motorbike races held on the island in May and June.
The population is thought to have increased over the past few years with estimates ranging from 120 to 160.
The animals, which graze and forage for willows and young shrubs, have normally confined themselves to the north of the island but scientists say they are on the move and have been spotted in the south.
Kathleen Graham, general manager at Curraghs Wildlife Park, said: “I’ve only been on the island for six years but the population will grow as they don’t have predators or competition.
“We don’t have deer, foxes or squirrels and the wallabies have a great habitat here where they can remain quite far away from people if they want to, where there is plenty of food for them.”
Dawn Dickens, from the Manx Wildlife Trust, said that it was a logical step that signs were put in place in order to “stop the element of surprise”.
“People are quite shocked when they see them on the roads, it can be startling. If they don’t know that we have wallabies they think it’s some sort of large rabbit,” she said.
Paige Havlin, a graduate of Queen’s University Belfast, studied Manx wallabies for a dissertation thesis, using hidden cameras to monitor them.
Her studies supported the theory that today’s wallaby population has descended from the escapees of Curraghs Wildlife Park.
Mrs Halvin made a request for road signs at the time of her study, and told The Daily Telegraph yesterday: “The purpose of the road signs was to raise awareness of them, rather than an urgent requirement due to accidents involving wallabies. If a tourist hired a car, a wallaby would be the last thing that they would expect to see.”
One incident involving a wallaby caused a couple to swerve off the road and into a wall, while there were a number of other incidents which involved collisions and wallaby carcasses reported on Manx roads.
Responding to the number of incidents that have involved the police, Insp Mark Briton said wallaby call-outs were “all in a day’s work”.
Sgt Tony Lawer said: “Only on the Isle of Man can you go from a foot chase and arrest to finding the Onchan wallaby sat in the middle of the road.”
People on the Isle of Man have grown nervous of the way wallabies spring out unexpectedly. Jumping is a wallaby speciality and it has provoked a jumpy reaction from some of the human population. This is a pity, for Manx wallabies (with complete tails) had been thriving, with no predators apart from TT bikes, which perhaps they learnt to avoid. In the neighbouring United Kingdom, wallabies have seen the graph of their fortunes rise and fall like their bouncy gait. They have peaked in the Peak District and are past their historic high in the Highlands. Less than a decade ago a breeding pair could be bought for £800, but these things follow fashion. Gone, we hope, are the days when eccentrics like Dante Gabriel Rossetti would think Chelsea a suitable place to keep possums, wombats and wallabies.