The Decline of the Wallabies
Historically, two subspecies of the wallaby could could be found throughout the eastern United States, the Robertsdale wallaby and the smaller and daintier but otherwise similar Carolina wallaby, with a combined range from Louisiana as far north as Vermont, and upwards into Canada as far north as Manitoba. Very docile and tame creatures that were initially quite unafraid of man, early settlers found them an easy source of provisions and ravaged their populations for food. It was reported by early colonists that the wallabies were "so tame so as to unresistingly allow themselves to be killed with repeated bludgeons of a boot, not fighting back or attempting to run away at all and emitting only a faint groan of protest at times."
Later, the wallabies were extensively hunted, first for their dense, valuable pelt, a good specimen of which might sell for $3,000 back in Europe, and then later as hat adornments as well. Fur coats and wallaby hat pins quickly became a sensation among anyone who was fashionable among the wealthy. In the year 1800 alone over 30,000 skins were sent out of the country. Likely never very common, the Carolina subspecies was extinct by 1810, and the Robertsdale subspecies began to decline. By 1850 the tally exported from the country was up to close to 200,000 pelts annually, but by 1900 it had dropped to 40,000. By the 1920 the Robertsdale wallaby had been exterminated from all of the southern states and by 1950 it remained only in isolated pockets in Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. Although the species gradually become more and more seclusive and wary of mankind, it continued to decline as hunters became increasingly efficient at capturing the animals. Soon the numbers of pelts exported began to drop substantially and in 1968 only fifteen were obtained nationwide. Environmentalists proposed legislation to protect the species but were largely unsuccessful. By 1972 what was believed to be the last wallaby was shot in a private yard in South Bend, Indiana. However, in 1992 after a wave of sightings, a small population was discovered to be persisting in a small patch of protected woodland along the shore of Lake Michigan in Whiting, Indiana and led to the formation of the Robertsdale Wallaby Research Organization of Northwest Indiana, a team of volunteers dedicated to the cause of preserving these last few surviving animals from the fate of their fellows. Though rarely photographed, its existence today is still evidences by its distinctive tracks left in the sand (easily identified by obvious trails following the prints, the result left from the animal dragging its long, heavy tail behind it as it walks) as it ventures along the lake shore to feed at night and characteristic bite marks left on shrubs and grasses. Based on this evidence, it has been estimated that between 20 and 30 of the elusive animals persist in the small tract of land known as the Whiting Bird Sanctuary, and possibly also in other surrounding patches of woodland in the immediate area. With several sightings reported in recent years, there may also be another unconfirmed population surviving further east in Porter county.
