Aotearoa has a pest problem. You're probably aware of stoats, wasps and rabbits, but there's another furry rascal that's a real danger to our forests and farmlands - wallabies.
You may know them from across the ditch, but they were also introduced here in the late 1800s - mainly as things for bored gentry to shoot at.
But they are extraordinarily destructive to farmland, crops and our native forests and there are more of them in New Zealand than you think.
With populations in Rotorua and southern Canterbury, if left unchecked it's estimated wallaby populations could spread and cover one-third of the motu in the next 50 years.
The furry animals have a huge appetite for native seedlings shrubs, which prevents their regeneration.
A $27 million national eradication programme hoping to control wallaby numbers is underway and Bay of Plenty Regional Council biosecurity officer Dale Williams said they are working to contain their spread.
Williams said they have contractors "night shooting" by locating the wallabies with drones and then hunting them down.
Williams said he would be happy if the programme was successful and we never saw wallabies in New Zealand again.
"That would be great because I could do something else with my life," he said.
The public can report any sightings of wallabies anywhere in New Zealand to www.reportwallabies.nz.
