Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- In a historic first, Australia welcomed home about 20 Kawau Island tammar wallabies from New Zealand Thursday, members of a "lost generation." The animals were taken to New Zealand from Australia more than 100 years ago but now are extinct in their native land the New Zealand Herald reported. Advertisement Two years ago, Australian scientists discovered the Kawau tammars belonged to an extinct sub-species and with an island community group planning to eradicate all the wallabies by 2005, decided to fly some home before it was too late. This first consignment of tammars arrived in Adelaide Thursday and will be quarantined at Monarto Zoological Park for six months before being released into the wild. Kawau's brush-tailed rock wallabies are also being deported in a separate project. They are endangered in their native New South Wales. Wallabies, along with other exotic wildlife and plants, were introduced to Kawau 140 years ago. But the marsupials feed on native plants and many people argue that they have no place on the island.
