Phantom kangaroo

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A phantom kangaroo is a report of kangaroos, wallabies, or their accompanying footprints in areas where there is no native population. [1] Some explanations put forth are escaped zoo or circus animals (as in the UK), or publicity stunts by local businesses using photographs from Australia. Others suggest outbreaks of such sightings are a form of mass psychogenic illness.

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France

A population of feral red-necked wallabies, [2] often mis-identified as "kangourous", lives near the township of Émancé, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) southwest of Paris. [3] These wallabies are descended from a breeding population which escaped a zoological reserve in the 1970s. [4]

Japan

Between 2002 and 2011, there was a series of phantom kangaroo sightings in the Mayama mountain district of Ōsaki, Miyagi city in Miyagi Prefecture. [5]

New Zealand

In 1831, after arriving in Australia, two sailors from the Sydney Packet reported that they had seen a "giant kangaroo", 30 feet (nine metres) tall, at a small cove in Dusky Sound, South Island. From a small boat, they observed it standing near the treeline, and when they came too close the animal jumped into the water and swam away, leaving a wake extending from one end of the sound to the other. [6]

Kawau Island in the Hauraki Gulf has a colony of three species of wallabies descending from a deliberate introduction by Sir George Grey, a 19th century Governor. [7]

New Zealand also has a wild population of wallabies in the Waimate District of South Island that were introduced for hunting in the late 19th century.

United Kingdom

Documented colonies of red-necked wallabies exist in the United Kingdom. A breeding colony established itself after breaking loose from a private zoo in Leek, Staffordshire in the 1930s. [8] Their population seems to have peaked in the 1970s, reaching numbers between 60 and 70. There were no confirmed sightings of the wallabies between 2000 and 2007, with some locals believing they must have died out. In 2009, newspapers reported wallaby sightings (including clear pictures) that made reference to sightings in 2008. [9] [10] In recent years, BBC News has documented numerous wallaby sightings across the UK. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]

Inchconnachan, an island in Loch Lomond in Scotland, also has a population of wallabies after they were introduced by Lady Arran Colquhoun in the 1920s. [17]

Subsequent sightings have been made including a report of a Bennett’s wallaby filmed by zoologist Maurice Melzak in Highgate Cemetery, Hampstead, London in October 2013, [18] and an albino wallaby in Northamptonshire in 2015. [19]

United States

In 1934, near South Pittsburg, Tennessee, an atypical kangaroo or "kangaroo-like beast" was reported by several witnesses over a five-day period, [20] and to have killed and partially devoured several animals, including ducks, geese, a German Shepherd and other dogs. [21] [22] Kangaroos are typically unaggressive and vegetarian. [21] A witness described the animal as looking "like a large kangaroo, running and leaping across a field." [21] A search party followed the animal's tracks to a mountainside cave where they stopped. [22] The animal was never found, and national news coverage drew widespread ridicule. [21]

In 1974, in Chicago, Illinois, two Chicago police officers 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. [1] Over the next month, numerous kangaroo sightings were reported in Illinois and the neighbouring states of Indiana and Wisconsin, with timing suggesting more than one animal if reports were accurate. [1] [22] A kangaroo was seen the next day by a paperboy, the next week in Schiller Woods, Illinois, and the week after that just outside Plano, Illinois, reported by a police officer who said it jumped eight feet from a field into the road. Thirty minutes later, a kangaroo was reported back in Chicago, then reported on the following three days in the surrounding countryside. A few days later, there were a rash of sightings in Indiana. Reports ceased about a month after the original story. [22]

In 1978, in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, two men photographed a large kangaroo beside the highway. [1] Author Loren Coleman, described as the "leading authority on North American kangaroo sightings", suggested the animal looked like a Bennett's wallaby.

In 2013, in Oklahoma, a kangaroo was reportedly recorded by hunters in a field. [23] The video was published on the website YouTube, and prompted speculation that the animal may be a pet kangaroo who went missing in the state just over a year earlier. [23] [24]

Also in 2013, The Ridgefield Press reported that a motorist in North Salem, New York captured on video what he thought was a kangaroo, and published the video on their website. [25] The newspaper noted that escaped wallabies, smaller than kangaroos, were known in Westchester County, which encompasses North Salem. [25] Several people in the county had kept wallabies as pets. [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

Phantom cats, also known as alien big cats (ABCs), are large felids which allegedly appear in regions outside their indigenous range. Sightings, tracks, and predation have been reported in a number of countries including Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, India, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. When confirmed, they are typically explained as exotic pets or escapees from private zoos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wallaby</span> Macropods of Australia and New Guinea

A wallaby is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and sometimes the same genus, but kangaroos are specifically categorised into the four largest species of the family. The term "wallaby" is an informal designation generally used for any macropod that is smaller than a kangaroo or a wallaroo that has not been designated otherwise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parma wallaby</span> Species of marsupial

The parma wallaby is a small marsupial macropod mammal native to forests and densely-vegetated areas of northeastern New South Wales, Australia, close to the border with Queensland. There is also an introduced population found in and around Rodney District, just north of Auckland, New Zealand. About the size of a stout cat, it lives mainly under thick plant cover, and is only active at night when it emerges to feed on grasses and small plants. It is the smallest of the wallabies and carries its young in a pouch, as with other marsupials. Shy and elusive, it was believed extinct until its rediscovery in the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red-necked wallaby</span> Species of marsupial

The red-necked wallaby or Bennett's wallaby is a medium-sized macropod marsupial (wallaby), common in the more temperate and fertile parts of eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Red-necked wallabies have been introduced to several other countries, including New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Isle of Man, France and Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loch Lomond</span> Loch In Scotland

Loch Lomond is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault, often considered the boundary between the lowlands of Central Scotland and the Highlands. Traditionally forming part of the boundary between the counties of Stirlingshire and Dunbartonshire, Loch Lomond is split between the council areas of Stirling, Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire. Its southern shores are about 23 kilometres (14 mi) northwest of the centre of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city. The Loch forms part of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park which was established in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tammar wallaby</span> A small macropod native to South and Western Australia

The tammar wallaby, also known as the dama wallaby or darma wallaby, is a small macropod native to South and Western Australia. Though its geographical range has been severely reduced since European colonisation, the tammar wallaby remains common within its reduced range and is listed as "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It has been introduced to New Zealand and reintroduced to some areas of Australia where it had been previously extirpated. Skull variations differentiate between tammar wallabies from Western Australia, Kangaroo Island, and mainland South Australia, making them distinct population groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Zealand storm petrel</span> Species of bird

The New Zealand storm petrel is a small seabird of the family Oceanitidae endemic to New Zealand. Thought to be extinct since 1850, a series of sightings from 2003 to the present indicated the presence of a previously unknown colony. The population of New Zealand storm petrels has been estimated to be less than 2000.

Kirsty Jackson Young is a Scottish television and radio presenter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park</span> National park in Scotland

Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park is a national park in Scotland centred on Loch Lomond and the hills and glens of the Trossachs, along with several other ranges of hills. It was the first of the two national parks established by the Scottish Parliament in 2002, the second being the Cairngorms National Park. The park extends to cover much of the western part of the southern highlands, lying to the north of the Glasgow conurbation, and contains many mountains and lochs. It is the fourth-largest national park in the British Isles, with a total area of 1,865 km2 (720 sq mi) and a boundary of some 350 km (220 mi) in length. It features 21 Munros and 20 Corbetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridled nail-tail wallaby</span> Species of marsupial

The bridled nail-tail wallaby, also known as the bridled nail-tailed wallaby, bridled nailtail wallaby, bridled wallaby, merrin, and flashjack, is a vulnerable species of macropod. It is a small wallaby found in three isolated areas in Queensland, Australia, and whose population is declining. In early 2019 the total population of the species was estimated to be fewer than 500 mature individuals in the wild and 2285 in captivity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hauraki Gulf</span> Gulf in New Zealand

The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2, and lies between, in anticlockwise order, the Auckland Region, the Hauraki Plains, the Coromandel Peninsula, and Great Barrier Island. Most of the gulf is part of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kawau Island</span> Island in the Hauraki Gulf, in Auckland, New Zealand

Kawau Island is in the Hauraki Gulf, close to the north-eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. At its closest point it lies 1.4 km (0.87 mi) off the coast of the Northland Peninsula, just south of Tāwharanui Peninsula, and about 8 km (5.0 mi) by sea journey from Sandspit Wharf, and shelters Kawau Bay to the north-east of Warkworth. It is 40 km (25 mi) north of Auckland. Mansion House in the Kawau Island Historic Reserve is an important historic tourist attraction. Almost every property on the Island relies on direct access to the sea. There are only two short roads serving settlements at Schoolhouse Bay and South Cove, and most residents have private wharves for access to their front door steps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British big cats</span> Reports of large non-native feline sightings in Britain

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Inchconnachan is an island in Loch Lomond in Scotland, in the Trossachs National Park. It is accessible by boat from the village of Luss on the south side of the Loch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shoalhaven Zoo</span> Zoo in New South Wales, Australia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inchlonaig</span> Island in Loch Lomond, Scotland

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Arthur Kattendyke Strange David Archibald Gore, 8th Earl of Arran, styled Lord Arran, was a British columnist and politician who served as the Conservative whip in the House of Lords. He is known for leading the effort in the House of Lords to decriminalise male homosexuality in 1967, following the suicide of his gay brother.

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Fiona Bryde Gore, Countess of Arran was a Scottish powerboating racer who was awarded the 1980 Segrave Trophy. She held the record for the fastest woman on water.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Clark, Jerome (1993). Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena . Detroit: Visible Ink Press. ISBN   0-8103-9436-7.
  2. ↑ "Des wallabies en liberté dans ma forêt de Rambouillet". Passion Nature 78. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
  3. ↑ "Roos are driving French hopping mad". The Sydney Morning Herald. 29 July 2009. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
  4. ↑ "Wild wallabies roam villages west of Paris". Business Insider. 4 August 2015. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  5. ↑ "Phantom kangaroos spotted in Japan". ABC.net.au. 9 March 2010. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
  6. ↑ Gosset, Robyn. New Zealand Mysteries. The Bush Press of New Zealand. pp. 148–149. ISBN   0-908608-73-X.
  7. ↑ "The Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, Part 2". Inset to The New Zealand Herald . 3 March 2010. p. 12.
  8. ↑ "Derbyshire's Wallabies". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
  9. ↑ "Hoax or reality? Wallaby captured on hiker's camera". Macclesfield Express. 24 June 2009. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  10. ↑ "Wallabies". The Roaches. 29 March 2009. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  11. ↑ "Wallaby roaming wild in Somerset countryside captured". BBC News. 23 December 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  12. ↑ "Would roo believe it? Wallaby spotted in Wales". BBC News. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  13. ↑ "Wallaby spotted crossing the road". BBC News. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  14. ↑ "Wallaby 'spotted near pub'". BBC News. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  15. ↑ "Wallaby spotted hopping around streets". BBC News. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  16. ↑ "Wallaby spotted on North Tyneside golf course". BBC News. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  17. ↑ "Loch Lomond Islands: Inchconnachan". Loch Lomond.net. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  18. ↑ "Wallaby spotted in Highgate Cemetery". The Telegraph. 22 October 2013. Archived from the original on 9 February 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  19. ↑ "Wallaby damned! Rare albino mammal spotted hopping around in... Northamptonshire". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited. 3 August 2015. Archived from the original on 6 August 2015. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  20. ↑ Fort, Charles (1984). The Info Journal. International Fortean Organization. p. 5.
  21. 1 2 3 4 Clark, Jerome (1 November 1998). Unexplained: Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences and Puzzling Physical Phenomena. Visible Ink Press. pp. 392–395. ISBN   978-1-57859-266-1.
  22. 1 2 3 4 Coleman, Loren (24 April 2007). Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation's Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures. Pocket Books. pp. 149–150. ISBN   978-1-4165-3944-5.
  23. 1 2 McKinnon, Chris (24 December 2013). "Oklahoma hunter catches kangaroo on camera". News 9. Oklahoma: World Now and KWTV. Retrieved 25 December 2013.
  24. ↑ McLinden, Scott (30 November 2012). "The search for Lucy Sparkles". News 12. Gray Television, Inc. Retrieved 25 December 2013.
  25. 1 2 3 "Ridgefielder spots 'kangaroo' on Route 116". The Ridgefield Press. 8 July 2013. Archived from the original on 31 March 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
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