Small and shy, dama wallabies are slowly spreading outside of their feral range around the Rotorua Lakes forests.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council biosecurity officer Dale Williams says hunters and farmers can help stop the spread by keeping watch and calling in any wallaby sign they see.

Sightings of wallabies outside their feral range – as shown on this map – should be reported to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

'Wallabies are a threat to farms, forestry and native bush so we're working with Waikato Regional Council and the Department of Conservation to keep them contained.”

Dama wallabies are different to any other pest the agencies have managed before, so a new set of surveillance and control tools has been developed.

'We've trained up a wallaby indicating dog and tested infra-red trail cameras. When we get fresh reports we can deploy the dog and cameras pretty quickly. We need to find these animals as soon as possible before the trail goes cold.”

Main areas of concern are anywhere west of Rotorua, east of Kawerau or south of Rainbow Mountain.

So if you're outdoors in the Bay of Plenty this winter and see a wallaby dead or alive, or their sign outside the feral range, note the location, take a photo if you can and call the regional council on 0800 STOP PESTS (0800 780 773) quickly to let them know.

Dale says work is also underway to control known 'outlier” wallaby populations.

'We've developed a new paste bait that we'll be using with encapsulated cyanide later this year, to control a wallaby population near Te Puke.

'We've also had good success with night shooting to eradicate a group of wallabies near Okere Falls.”

Find out more at www.boprc.govt.nz/pestanimals