Periodically, reports of
kangaroos,
wallabies, or their accompanying footprints
have been made in places where one would not expect
them—specifically, areas where there is no native population. Some
explanations put forth are escaped zoo or circus animals, or
publicity stunts by local businesses using photographs from
Australia. Others suggest outbreaks of such sightings are a form of
mass hysteria.
United Kingdom
There is at least one verifiable example of a population of wild
wallabies outside Australia. Documented colonies of
red-necked wallabies exist in the United
Kingdom.
In Derbyshire
, a breeding colony has established itself after
breaking loose from a private zoo in Leek, Staffordshire in the 1930s . Their
population peaked in the 1970s, reaching numbers between 60 and 70.
There have been no confirmed sightings of the wallabies since 2000,
however, with some locals believing they must have died out.
Even so,
other Wallaby colonies exist in the UK, including reliable reports
from the Fenland on the Norfolk/Lincolnshire border; and there are
a few in Ashdown
Forest
, Sussex. In May 2001
The
Sun reported that the Derbyshire wallabies were hunted for
their meat by eastern European immigrants and included images of a
half cooked wallaby. While many copies of the paper still exist The
Sun still denies running the story.
In
Scotland, Inchconnachan
, an island in Loch Lomond
has a population of wallabies as well. Lady
Arran Colquhoun introduced them in the 1920s.
France
There is a
verifiable population of kangaroos living in the wild in the
township of Émancé
, about an
hour outside of Paris. The kangaroos are descended from a
breeding population which escaped during a botched burglary attempt
at an animal park in the 1970s.
Germany
In the years before
World War I, there
was a colony of wallabies in
Prussia, raised
by a hunter living there. When he died, shortly before WWI, they
became easy prey to local deer hunters.
United States
Many of these sightings are very similar to reports of the
Jersey Devil.
Tennessee
, 1934: During mid-January 1934, an
atypical kangaroo was reported to have
killed and partially devoured several animals, including German
shepherd dogs. One witness, Reverend W. J. Hancock,
described the animal as looking like a large kangaroo, running and
leaping across a field. Another witness, Frank Cobb, soon found
more evidence of the kangaroo’s activities: a dismembered
alsatian. A search party followed the kangaroo's
prints to a cave, where the trail ran out. The kangaroo was never
found.
There have been recent attempts to label the story as a hoax by the
late Horace N. Minnis, of the
Chattanooga Times. However, Minnis
was not a newspaper correspondent for the area at that time.
Chicago
,
1974: In the early morning hours of October 18, 1974, Officer
Michael Byrne and Leonard Ciagi of the Chicago police were called
to investigate a report that a kangaroo was standing in someone's
porch. After a brief search, the officers located the animal
in an alleyway, but were unable to capture it.
After the
Chicago incident, kangaroo sightings were reported in Illinois
and Wisconsin
. The kangaroo was seen the next day by a
paperboy, and again on the 23rd in
Schiller Woods.
Another police officer
saw it on November 1 in Plano
, just
outside the city. He reported it jumping eight feet from a
field into the road. Half an hour later it (or another one), was
seen back in Chicago.
It was then seen on the following three days
in the surrounding countryside, and finally on the sixth, near
Lansing
. A few days later, there was a rash of
sightings in Indiana
.
Menomonee Falls
, Wisconsin, 1978: two men photographed a large
kangaroo beside the highway. (picture supplied)
Loren Coleman compares the pictures to a
Bennett's wallaby.
See also
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