MotoGP riders want wildlife protection at Phillip Island after "unacceptable" near-misses

The topic was discussed at a safety commission meeting on Friday following several close calls with wildlife at the Australian circuit.

Aleix Espargaro narrowly avoided a collision with a wallaby in the Free Practice 1, while the Cape Barren Geese that populate Phillip Island have caused issues across a number of categories so far this weekend.

In previous years, several riders have also come to blows with seagulls - most famously Andrea Iannone, when he struck a bird fighting for the podium in 2015. 

According to Suzuki rider Alex Rins, the height of circuit perimeter fencing should be evaluated to improve rider protection.

“We already talked yesterday in the safety commission that they need to improve the fences," he said following qualifying, "because if we hit a wallaby it could be so dangerous for the animal and also for us.

"I’m looking at this fence on the straight and it’s not so high."

Espargaro, meanwhile, labelled his wallaby near-miss as "unacceptable", although conceded that trying to keep flighted birds out of the circuit would never be possible.

"At the beginning [of the meeting] everybody was laughing. But they understood it was a very important thing in terms of safety," said Espargaro.

"For me it is unacceptable. it was very dangerous. Let's see if they can improve. We asked them to close the track a little bit better.

"For the birds you can't do anything. Birds can happen. But wallabies cannot happen. If yesterday I caught the wallaby, I was doing 220 km/h, big, big, big crash."

Local hero Jack Miller said he understood the safety concerns from riders, but argued that the wallaby seen in FP1 was unlikely to have entered the circuit since the grand prix weekend got underway.

He said it was more likely to have already been living within the circuit confines and was scared out of its shelter by the MotoGP bikes.

"Don't get me wrong, it's very dangerous to have kangaroos and what not hopping around in the middle of a race track when you're doing 350 km/h," he said when quizzed on the issue by Autosport.

"But like I said yesterday in the safety commission, I understand that there's not a six-foot fence around this joint, but that kangaroo didn't just waltz on in.

"I'd say it was burrowed in somewhere, and the noise of these 300 horsepower machines starting to go around [woke it up].

"It's not nice to have [animals] on the race track, but at the end of the day, what are you going to do? I'm sure there's nothing waltzing in over the fences now, because the fences are six-deep with people. I don't think it's too much of an issue."

Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, rides past Phillip Island's wildlife

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

When asked if the safety commission had come up with any potential solutions, Miller reiterated the point that the matter is, to a large extent, unresolvable.

"At the end of the day when you have a track in such an iconic location like this, you're always going to have an issue with wildlife," he said.

"Whether it's seagulls or whatever those dodo-looking birds are, you're always going to have an issue.

"What are we going to do? Exterminate the whole island?

"Everyone knows when you come to Australia there is wildlife. All you have to do is drive down a highway and look at the roadkill. There's a lot of animals in this joint and not a lot of people. It's different to everywhere else in the world."