LONDON — Don’t pester the wombats.

That is the plea from Australian tourism officials dealing with hordes of visitors to an island and nature preserve who cannot resist the urge to follow the marsupials around, approach them for selfies or even cuddle them.

Wombats roam free on Maria Island, where there are no natural predators and no permanent human inhabitants. Along with other wildlife, they have taken over the island, a former prison colony with a small ghost town and vast green expanses, just off the coast of Tasmania, south of the Australian mainland.

Looking like big teddy bears, the stocky, furry animals — each about three feet long and weighing 50 to 70 pounds — have no fear of people, and amble up to visitors as soon as they get off the ferry. But officials this month have called on people to fight the urge to get too close and to respect the habitat they are visiting.

“The tourists are in love with the wombats; so in love that we need to give them some education about how to interact with them,” Ruth Dowdy, the head of the tourism board on Tasmania’s East Coast, told ABC Radio Hobart.