Sniffing dog stops wallabies skipping south

A cute detection dog called Toby is helping an Otago pest control team track down wily wallabies crossing the Waitaki River. 

The  Aussie imports are escaping South Canterbury's Wallaby Containment Area in search of greener pastures.

Blake Clinch and Amy Knopers spend most of their time hunting wallabies.

The pair work for High Country Contracting, which is employed by the Otago Regional Council to eliminate the invasive marsupials as part of a national programme.

Country Life tracked the intrepid duo down to a hilltop forestry block that overlooks the Waitaki Valley.

"We came in here three weeks ago with thermal drones and we saw a wallaby, so we're here today doing surveillance with a dog to see if we can find more scat (poo) to make sure it's not a bigger population than just the one," Blake says.

Toby has his gear on and is raring to go.

"He was a rescue dog and I adopted him from from SPCA," Amy says.

She is not sure what breed he is, though.

"Our best guess is that he’s a springer spaniel crossed with a fox terrier!"

It took Amy four years to train Toby to work as a detection dog seeking out wallaby poo. When he finds some, he lies down.

"It's called a passive indication where they point their nose at the target as say 'look mother, it's here!'"

The Bennett's wallaby was first introduced to South Canterbury in 1874 for sport and its valuable skin.

By the 1940s, they became a significant pest - depleting forest understories, competing with livestock for food and damaging agricultural crops and fences.

Blake doesn’t know what South Canterbury's current wallaby population is but guesses it could be hundreds of thousands.

"I’ve seen mobs of over 100 in the containment zone, it's pretty crazy, and that’s within a hectare."

There have already been wallaby sightings as far south as Dunedin, he says.

"One's been seen in a truckers dashcam so they're definitely there and they've been seen and shot around the Naseby-Ranfurly area."

Blake describes the creatures as 'cryptic'. 

"These animals are really hard to track down because they've got nowhere they’re wanting to be, they're just travelling"

To help get rid of this pest, Blake requests people report any wallaby kills or sightings to the Otago Regional Council hotline on 0800 474 082 or at www.reportwallabies.nz

It's predicted that the economic benefit of eradicating wallabies in the South Island will be over $23.5 million a year.