Kiwis heading into the bush over summer are being reminded to report any sightings of wallabies.
There are up to 1 million dama wallabies in the Lakes District alone.
Swarms of wallabies, mainly located in the North Island, chew through pastures and decimate the forest floor.
They also feed on native seedlings known as palatable species, disrupting the natural ecosystems of our native forests.
“They could be living in the back of your property if you're a farmer and you may not even know they're there,” the Bay of Plenty Regional Council's Dale Williams said.
“Part of our goal is eradication so if eradication is your goal, you pretty much have to 100 per cent focus on that one species."
The marsupials released near Lake Ōkāreka in 1912. Nearly a century later, they occupy 180,000 hectares of land.
There are fears the population, if left unchecked, could take hold in a third of the North Island within the next 50 years.
Wallaby dog handler Kimberley Tiddy and her trained wallaby dog Lotta are on their trail.
"We're searching for absence of presence, so we don't necessarily see wallabies, but we're searching for scat or footprints, or fur or smell, and just watching the dog and seeing whether there's something there or not,” Tiddy said.
The information is then used to see if the population is spreading.
Around $27 million has been allocated to help control the pests.
"We're now in a position where we can work with our partners, with regional councils, with mana whenua, with landowners, to run a national programme to tackle what is quite a problem for the country,” Biosecurity New Zealand’s John Walsh said.
“Actually a hidden problem because A, they're cute and B, they're unseen."
Advanced surveillance technology, such as thermal and trail cameras, are among the tools being used to fight its spread. Water also serves as a natural border.
"We definitely don’t want them to the cross the Rangitaiki because then they'll be in the Te Urewera and that would be not worth imagining,” Williams said.
SHARE ME