Almost 40 agile wallabies have been found dead, feared poisoned, during the past week in north Queensland, at a site where their habitat has been destroyed and isolated by housing development.
Wildlife rescue volunteers yesterday morning found another four wallabies dead near sporting fields at Trinity Beach, north of Cairns.
The Agile Project, a group that cares for the wallabies, says 37 agile wallabies had died in similar circumstances in the past week.
“I woke up this morning and I had no doubt in my mind there would be more dead,” said Shai Ager, an ecologist who started the conservation group two years ago. “Our rescuers are nearly broken. It’s been 37 deaths now in the past few days. They’re dying a horrible death too, I’ve sat with three of them while they’ve been foaming at the mouth.”
Autopsy results are not expected for a few days and Ager said local rescuers did not want to rush to conclusions, but that “strange” symptoms tended to indicate poisoning rather than disease or environmental factors.
Seven live joeys were found over the weekend in the pouch of their dead mother, but only five survived and are being cared for by rescuers.
For the past two years, wildlife rescuers have been lobbying to have the wallabies relocated from Trinity Beach.
The animals have effectively been hemmed into a shrinking habitat between the Captain Cook Highway, the Bluewater housing estate and the coastal mangroves, with diminishing food and water supplies.
Ager said the large housing development had left only a small amount of bushland for the population of coastal wallabies, pushing many into spaces like backyards, sports fields and parks.
“The development has disregarded the wallabies,” Ager said. “Now there’s just too many in such a small space. They haven’t put practical management plans in place, and they’ve been pushed out of their land and they’re now living in people’s backyards.”
Last year, the Agile Project began a court case against the Queensland government seeking permission to relocate the entire local wallaby population.
“The government has been ignoring this population of wallabies hoping the situation goes away,” Ager said. “It’s no surprise that people would be doing outrageous things like this. The public wants a relocation.”
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