The Aussie imports are escaping South Canterbury's Wallaby Containment Area in search of greener pastures.
Blake Clinch and Amy Knopers spend most of their time hunting wallabies.
The pair work for High Country Contracting, which is employed by the Otago Regional Council to eliminate the invasive marsupials as part of a national programme.
Country Life tracked the intrepid duo down to a hilltop forestry block that overlooks the Waitaki Valley.
"We came in here three weeks ago with thermal drones and we saw a wallaby, so we're here today doing surveillance with a dog to see if we can find more scat (poo) to make sure it's not a bigger population than just the one," Blake says.
Toby has his gear on and is raring to go.
"He was a rescue dog and I adopted him from (the) SPCA," Amy says.
"Our best guess is that he’s a springer spaniel crossed with a fox terrier!"
It took Amy four years to train Toby to work as a detection dog seeking out wallaby poo. When he finds some, he lies down.
"It's called a passive indication where they point their nose at the target as say 'look mother, it's here!'"
The Bennett's wallaby was first introduced to South Canterbury in 1874 for sport and its valuable skin.
Blake doesn’t know what South Canterbury's current wallaby population is but guesses it could be hundreds of thousands.
"I’ve seen mobs of over 100 in the containment zone, it's pretty crazy, and that’s within a hectare."
"One's been seen in a truckers dashcam so they're definitely there and they've been seen and shot around the Naseby-Ranfurly area."
Blake describes the creatures as 'cryptic'.
"These animals are really hard to track down because they've got nowhere they’re wanting to be, they're just travelling"
It's predicted that the economic benefit of eradicating wallabies in the South Island will be over $23.5 million a year.
