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MANY NEW SPECIES of animals have been introduced to Ireland over the centuries.
After finding our mild climate fairly agreeable, they’ve settled in nicely.
Species common today were new at one stage – these range from rabbits, who came to our shores with the Normans in the 12th century, to the more modern and invasive introduction of grey squirrels in 1911.
One more recent, exotic, and elusive addition is thriving – the red-necked wallaby.
A small population lives on Lambay Island, an island 4km off the coast of north Co Dublin. It is currently owned by the Baring family of Barings Bank fame.
Visitors to the private island (usually through tours like this) often catch glimpses of the kangaroo-like animals.
Ireland is not alone in having a population of wallabies – they’re present on Inchconnachan in Scotland, the Isle of Man, and in the Peak District.
The marsupials are not usually found on the western edge of Europe (as you have probably noticed) but are native to Australia.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Millie Baring explained how her father Rupert introduced wallabies to Lambay in the 1950s, and hand-reared the very first joeys.
“This was in keeping with his father – my great-grandfather – Cecil’s love of natural history and island ecologies, which led to him attempting to introduce all sorts of extraordinary species onto the island including giant rheas (similar to ostrich and emus), mouflon sheep (an ancestor of modern breeds), kinkajou (a rainforest animal similar in appearance to a ferret), peacocks and many more,” she said.
None were very successful, but when it came to Rupert’s turn, the wallabies thrived. It is thought that the climate on Lambay is not dissimilar to that of Tasmania [also a cool temperate oceanic], which also has a thriving population of wallabies.
This population was not free to roam around the island until after some outside influence in the 1980s. The Barings received a further seven wallabies from Dublin Zoo, where the population had grown to the extent where they had surplus marsupials.
According to Smithsonian.com, Fota Wildlife Park in Cork took some of these wallabies but Dublin Zoo struggled to re-home the rest. The Barings accepted an offer from the then-director of the zoo, Peter Wilson, and the wallabies were put into boxes and shipped off to the island on a fishing trawler.
“We wanted to put them on an island because we knew we were introducing a species that could run wild and take over,” Wilson told the publication, ”If we put them on an island like Lambay, there’s no way they could escape from it.”
Millie Baring said her grandfather took them on and “they joined forces with the resident tame mob, breeding well”:
Eventually they became wild and headed for the hills.
Baring said the wallabies move around the summit of the island depending on the season – “They shelter in the gorse bushes from the sun and relaxing on the north-side cliffs when it’s cooler”.
“They are very shy but also curious so will often stop for a good look at you before scampering away if you get within three metres from them.
They tend to come out at dusk and I have often bumped into one or two lurking around the castle gardens as darkness sets in, which always gives all parties concerned a surprise – especially when our island husky Echo is with me on the lead.
The population is now estimated to number more than a hundred, with the animals causing no obvious problems on the island. The other wildlife on the island is largely limited to cattle, deer, and a large number of seabirds.
Niall Keogh, a PhD student from GMIT, has been fascinated with the wallabies since he first visited the island in 2015.
On his most recent trip this week he managed to snap this photograph of a joey in its mother’s pouch.
He said it’s not hard to spot them hopping around. The wallabies are considered to have a low impact on the island’s ecology, he added. The main issue could be around grazing, but that the deer would cause more of an issue in this way.
Keogh added that the population is kept under control to prevent overpopulation, which also minimises their impact on the island.
This possibility is something of some concern to authorities, as wallabies are classed as an invasive species. While their presence on Lambay is a quirk, their introduction on the mainland could have serious consequences.
In New Zealand, the animals have become a pest. A population of 15,000 grew out of the release of just three into the wild.
Some of the images in this article were taken by Mark Broderick while he was on working on his short film about Lambay. Watch a trailer for it below.
Mark Broderick / Vimeo
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Well thats got to be the strangest gathering of 2023……
@Dave Hammond: Luma Plex fake account.
@Dave Hammond: best ever, stomach hurts. Love it.
@Dave Hammond: well , identity theft is seemingly your thing Mr Hammond …it is still theft.
@fakeDave Hammond: please keep posting.
Zelensky and Greta, two good actors
@Burn Turf: slow cĺap
@Paul Furey: What’s your take on Putin?
@Burn Turf: These two are Real actors and this play never gets old.
Eamon McCann wrote recently how Robinson refused to meet the Bloody Sunday families while, at the same time, she was campaigning for “social justice” abroad.
That little anecdote tells us all we need to know about this woman.
@John Mackey: She’s a hypocrite
Woke gathering…
I’m sure the frightened citizens of Ukraine and the soldiers fighting to stay alive are delighted to hear this. Obviously their carbon footprint will be foremost in their minds right now…
@Dave Hammond: That is untrue, Luma Plex.
Russian nazis blew up the dam, and the nordstream pipeline.
@Dave Hammond: You are Luma Plex. The psychopathic personalily is obvious.
@A D: that’s fake Dave Hammond for sure / I should know ;)
@Brendan O’Brien: yeah it’s gone shockingly bad / when I saw somebody using profile pic and name I sorta hoped they might be intelligent and funny and I thought maybe I could even enjoy their posts / but of course shocker of the century thel-
Who cares ? Greta trashberg shouldn’t use this to make ecology’s publicity.
@EU is not bad: Let’s face it. One day Greta Thunderpants will be a powerful political figure, maybe EC President or whatever. One day she will tell your children what to do.
Maybe Greta should visit Putin and hopefully bore him to death…literally?!
@Paul Shepherd: that’s fake Dave Hammond profile just being moronic
@Dave Hammond: That is ‘Luma Plex’.
Note the 10y beside the genuine account.
@Dave Hammond: not annoying , but identity theft is still theft ….and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
@Dave Hammond: and novichok!
@Honey Badger: Another fake account. The genuine Honey Badger does not have the image.
My God, what a collection, all in the one room.
Every time an article about the environment is published, we see the classic “questions”. I’ll answer a few of them for the laugh.
1. “China emit way more emissions than Ireland, why should we do anything” – obvs, they have a population of 1.4 billion. Should we do absolutely nothing to mind Irish ecology and animals/plants just because other countries have bigger statistics?
2. “Greta should go back to school”. Do you know what a strike is?
3. “WEF Liberal agenda”. The WEF is capitalist, neoliberal greenwashing. If you hate the WEF, you have more in common with socialists that you think.
4. It is about protecting wildlife, ancient biodiversity sites that have flourished over thousands of years. Don’t call yourself a “patriot” if you don’t care about protecting our landscape.
@Sylvia Power: Your basically arguing with an imagined person in your head.
@JedBartlett: literally go back and look at every comments section of every climate related article here. The only thing I missed was people commenting “WOKE” and expecting a round of applause. No engagement with policy whatsoever
@Sylvia Power: Wow, that’s some straw man you’ve built there.
@Sylvia Power: You support her, I bet you’ve had at least one flight this year.
@Popcorn Sutton: omg you are insane
@Popcorn Sutton: literally when did I mention fungi or frogs
@Dave Hammond: I’m not vegan what are you talking about? I’m literally saying Ireland should mind our natural biodiversity?
@Dave Hammond: Great contribution to research and data there, the WEF might recruit you for a job seeing as you’re so good at deflecting criticism
@John Mackey: Yeah I have, I firmly believe that it’s possible for people to travel by air but also hold big energy corporations to account. Again, you might want to stop analysing the actions of working people and start criticising big companies.
@Sylvia Power: You’re a wee bit of a hypocrite, Sylvie.
@Sylvia Power: You’re wasting your time arguing with these half-witted conspiracy theorists.
@Sylvia Power: Yes, but they are greedy and short sighted. We’ll wipe ourselves out soon, it will benefit planet hopefully and things may go back to normal long after human species is gone?
Meeting with these two???
The poor man must be desperate,
@Ned: “Poor man”? Richest comedian in the world.
She’s so brave, “cough” Slava Greta, ya big Fake.
I’ll sleep well tonight knowing how this triggers some people
@Louis Jacob: Weird the things people will pleasure themselves to. All in your head, son.
@Louis Jacob: Me too.
That counter offensive is in the mud.
Get the celebrities in!
(meanwhile thousands of people die to keep this stupid war going)
@Dave Hammond:
@Dave Hammond:
Exactly.
The Wagner “coup” which lasted half an hour was the US/NATO plan B when the counter offensive failed, as they knew it would.
They don’t care about Ukrainian lives lost in the offensive, they knew it had no hope of succeeding but their priority is to keep the $$$ flowing into the US/UK Military Industrial Complex, not Ukrainian lives.
Both use washing machines.
@Dave Hammond: they say 90% of US bills have traces of cocaine…..
it is time for peace!
It was a pleasure to read comments tonight. What a fun!
@Sylvia Power: Spot on.
Don’t mind Dave. He shares his odd thoughts but remains angry at himself for having them in the first place. He’s to be pitied.
@honey badger: You forgot to include your Stephen Bandera ‘Slava’ quote.
I haven’t taken the time to read the article as it’s very late ,but the photo is of the upper lake Killarney as see from the south, from ladies view.
Need to send green energy tanks and silencer weapons so as not to traumatize the wildlife during the war.
Did you ever hear such rubbish
As if Ukrainians have not suffered enough. Now they must endure these two windbags
@Dave Hammond: What inspired your idea at the top of the comments? It’s very odd.
Can someone get on to Vouge Williams to sort all this out.
Pathetic that they would use war where people die to their own ends
have your say