The Wallabies of Lambay

Lambay is a private island four kilometres off the coast of north Dublin. The Baring family has owned it since 1904. Various members tried over the decades to populate it with exotic species: mouflon sheep, chamois goats, kinkajous, rheas, peacocks. None survived. In 1980 the Dublin Zoo had a surplus of red-necked wallabies and asked the family to take them. Seven wallabies arrived on a fishing trawler. They thrived. The population has grown thick winter coats, breeds freely, and is now the largest wild wallaby colony in Europe. The island’s other inhabitants amount to about a dozen people and a small herd of cattle.