Experts explain wallaby pop-ups across Sydney
Just weeks after a wallaby hopped across Sydney Harbour Bridge, another one had to be rescued from the city's waters, and experts are blaming land clearing for the increased sightings of the marsupials in urban areas.
Last month a daring and adventurous wallaby made headlines when commuters spotted him jumping across Harbour Bridge.
On Thursday a helpless wallaby was spotted struggling in the waters 50 metres off Manly Wharf and had to rescued from Sydney Harbour by ferry crew members.
The wallaby (pictured) was spotted hopping across the Harbour Bridge before police caught it
Sydney Wildlife volunteer Jodi Lewis from Balgowlah — who rescued Thursday's wallaby — says land clearing at Manly Vale Public School and the Northern Beaches Hospital is to blame for the recent incidents on the peninsula.
'It's possible the land clearing is starting to have an effect on animals,' she told the Daily Telegraph.
'We do what we can' but explained that they tried to get tunnels built under the roads to help save wildlife, but it didn't happen.
A wallaby stranded in Sydney harbour waters was pulled to safety by a ferry crew (pictured)
Tunnels or wildlife corridors would allow the creatures to move from one habitat to another without getting lost in urban areas.
Sydney Wildlife boss Joan Reid added: 'They are vulnerable [the wallabies].
'They can't get from point A to point B,' she said.
Land clearing is the process of removing trees, stumps, brush, stones and other obstacles from an area - often places where wallabies live and hide.
A wallaby caught outside a small supermarket on Pittwater Rd in Manly in December (pictured)
Late last year a wallaby was spotted hopping across Pittwater Rd in Manly before bouncing through the shopping precinct and heading into an underground carpark.
One was also spotted in Quirk Rd, Manly Vale.
Edwina Laginestra from WIRES who helped rescue the wallaby from the underground car park said wallabies were more becoming a more regular siting for locals.
'Something is spooking them,' she told the Manly Daily at the time.
'It wouldn't be surprising if it was being caused by the school development up at Manly Vale.'