Showing posts with label wallaby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wallaby. Show all posts

Saturday, 12 May 2012

OOPA: UK wallaby sighting delights and surprises


Well I’ll be! A wallaby who hopped its way down a farm track in Pluckley is now set to become a YouTube hit, according to Kent Online.A 14-second film clip was taken by village resident Alex Pooley who caught the cheeky creature on camera as she walked her dog Shackleton, two.
The 29-year-old said: “We were in a field near the train station and I saw what I thought was a giant hare, but then it moved and started hopping.
Wallaby spotted in Pluckley
“I was a bit surprised to say the least and the dog was off the lead at the time and he went off to investigate. They ran around for a couple of minutes and then he came back and I put him on the lead.
“Then I saw it hopping down the path towards us. It seemed pretty friendly and quite intrigued because it came right up to us.”
Grabbing her mobile phone, teacher Alex managed to film the animal before it once again hopped off.
Wallabies are generally found in Australia though have been spotted in the UK including areas of Devon and East Sussex.
In 2009 a ghost hunting trip to Pluckley that ended up with a family being spooked by a wallaby (pictured above).
Wallaby hit by motorist Kate Scorey as she was driving home in the dark.
Mum Mandy Page took daughters Sophie and Lauren for a bit of spirit spotting in November. But instead of a headless horseman, they found a wallaby staring back at them.
The month before that, commuter Ula Griggs encountered a wallaby crossing the road. The stunned motorist saw it bounce across at Bell Lane, just outside Pluckley.
In 2005 a wallaby (pictured left) was hit by motorist Kate Scorey at the Texaco garage, A20 outside Lenham as she was driving home in the dark.
In September 2008, a wallaby was spotted on Magpie Hall Road in Stubbs Cross. It was believed to be Wesley, a wallaby that had escaped from a farm eight years before and was frequently glimpsed around the area.
The creatures have a life expectancy of about 18 years.

Monday, 30 January 2012

OOPA: Wallaby carnage in Woodchester UK


A mysterious blood-thirsty wild cat is feared to have struck again after three wallabies were found devoured on farmland in the Cotswolds area of the United Kingdom.

The trio were found stripped to the bone, with their internal organs neatly placed beside their bodies.

Examinations revealed they had suffered puncture wounds to the neck - consistent with a vicious attack by a panther-like creature.

Experts now believe the animals were devoured by the Wildcat of Woodchester which is already believed to have killed three times this month.

The mutilated bodies of three deer have been found in the past few weeks in countryside near Stroud, Gloucestershire -  just 12 miles from where the wallabies were mauled to death.

The wallabies were found only 12 miles apart leading to the belief that it was the same cat

Samples of DNA  from the predator's first deer kill on January 4 are currently being tested to confirm whether or not a big cat is behind the killings.

The results are expected to be revealed over the next few days.

But big cat expert Frank Tunbridge is in no doubt over who killed the wallabies and the deer.

Mr Tunbridge, 65, said: 'There could be no creature other than a big cat that could bring down and kill these wallabies.

'The field was surrounded by a 7ft fence and there was no apparent entry signs - so the predator must have leapt over it.

'The killer struck over two nights. The first night he killed two wallabies, stripped one of the carcasses down and hid the other under a pile of leaves and straw.

'Then he came back and killed a third - devouring his further kills. A fourth wallaby appears to have died from a heart attack.

'The wallabies are only about 12 miles from Woodchester so it appears that this could be the same big cat.

'They have all the hallmarks of a panther or puma kill.'

The wallabies, part of a private collection, were found by their devastated owner on January 6 - two days after the apparent first kill by the Wildcat of Woodchester.

The Gloucestershire farmer did not want to divulge his name or location.

But he did release gory pictures of one of the dead wallabies.

The carcass had been ripped open in a similar way to the three roe deers the beast is believed to have slayed.

The first deer had been torn open and was missing its heart, kidneys and liver.

Its snout was also missing - important because big cats clamp their jaws over the mouth, causing death by suffocation.

Experts believe the deer was brought down and devoured by a large and powerful predator such as a puma, jaguar or leopard.

Tufts of the animal’s fur were also found piled by the body - and such predators neatly pluck the hair from the body before shearing their teeth into the flesh.

Another deer carcass was found by a dog walker between Whiteway and Redcomb, near Cirencester - ten miles away - on January 10.

A third roe deer body was found at a development in Cooper’s Edge, near Gloucester, days later.

Dr Robin Allaby, an expert in evolutionary genetics at Warwick University’s School of Life Sciences, is studying samples of DNA taken from the first carcass.

He said: 'I’m prepared to believe in the existence of big cats in the UK and we have a reasonable chance of finding out if it was there.

'We are in the process of studying samples of DNA taken from the deer and if its death was the result of a big cat then we’re hoping it left cheek cells and saliva.'


Is this the culprit? A picture of a large black cat taken in the area.


Friday, 20 May 2011

OOPA: Gotcha! Wallaby caught in the UK


CFZ US blogger Nick Redfern has a great post about an out of place animal - a wallaby - on the hop in Dorset in the UK. It's not the first British wallaby that's been featured on this blog (we featured a mother and joey bouncing around Cornwall last month) and no doubt it won't be the last.
As Nick relates, there are a number of interesting stories relative to how and why they are here - but nothing too mysterious. You can read his musings about OOPAs in general here.
This hapless macropod has however since been caught and is destined for a life in a wildlife park in Exminster, Devon.



Tuesday, 3 August 2010

Albino macropods no bush myth

Weekly Times reader Malcolm Thompson was driving along the Manangatang-Ouyen Road in Victoria when he spotted this albino kangaroo and friend grazing in a paddock.

"I couldn't believe it," Malcolm said. "I've been knocking around the bush for 40 years and I've never seen a white albino anything, let alone a white albino kangaroo!"

Albino kangaroos and wallabies are not as uncommon as you might think.

In Australia's infancy they were considered to be prized gifts to other countries and frequently shared headlines with world leaders.

The sighting brings to mind the famous meeting between Winston Churchill and 'Digger' the albino kangaroo at London Zoo in 1947.

The CFZ have come across several old clippings about albino kangaroos and wallabies.

We also know Taronga Zoo founder Sir Edward Hallstrom also used to breed albino kangaroos at his property in Sydney, and gifted one to President Truman in 1952 - poor 'roo! Or was it a case of 'hoo-roo'?





























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