To date, the island has taken a hands-off policy, not taking steps to manage the population in any way. But all the adoring fans in the world can’t turn them into an endemic species, and they may now be the country’s sweetest yet most confounding problem. When the survey revealed the size of the population last year, “it really changed the rhetoric overnight. People are normally like, ‘leave them alone,’” Makepeace-Warne says, but now, more people are starting to question whether it’s time to step in. After the survey, Manx Wildlife Trust released a position statement outlining the island’s choices: eradicate the wallabies, manage them, or do nothing.
“Views range greatly from ‘cull them all’ or ‘fence them in,’ to ‘make them a headline visitor attraction’ and ‘recognize them as a useful conservation grazing animal,’” the position statement says of residents’ mixed feelings, adding that they’re “arguably now a part of Manx culture.”
Aside from being charismatic and adorable, it’s possible the wallabies actually do earn their keep, in a way. The Isle of Man doesn’t have any deer, so when the wallabies graze on wild grasses, they may be filling a conservation niche. But of course, there’s a counterpoint to every potential benefit. For all the good their grazing may do, they’re also munching the buds of coppiced hazel trees into oblivion. And while they don’t pose a direct threat to livestock the way wolves, foxes, or mountain lions would (not that the Isle of Man has any of those), they’ve been known to knock down fences, which allows livestock to escape and mess around with habitats where they’re not meant to be.
“They don’t tend to jump over fences, like you might think they would,” Makepeace-Warne says, “they tend to throw themselves into them.”
The wallabies may also be an issue for the island’s population of hen harriers, which are ground-nesting birds—not exactly the best place to nest undisturbed when there are a bunch of 18-kilo fluff sacks hopping around.
Then there’s the Isle of Man TT, widely acclaimed as the world’s most dangerous motorsport race. Motorcycle riders can top 150 miles per hour (240 kph) on some sections of the island’s town and country roads. A rider has never hit a wallaby during the race, but a collision would be catastrophic for both parties. During the race, marshals stake out areas where the wallabies are known to hang out, Makepeace-Warne says, so they can scare them away and prevent them from trying to cross the road.
