'Strewth, That's no Hare, it's a Wallaby'
A wallaby has been spotted hopping around a Northamptonshire village.
The marsupial was seen by eagle-eyed Pitsford resident Pete Halsey, aged 42, as he stood in his back garden.
The company director, who lives in Manor Road, said: "I was rescuing a rabbit from one of my cats at around 8.30am. Our garden backs onto fields so I took it down to the bottom of the garden to let it go.
"Suddenly I saw a big, brown animal in one of the fields. I assumed it was a hare but it was very large, much bigger than a hare would be. I watched it as it ran across the fields and jumped over a fence. If I hadn't known better I would have said it had to be a wallaby from the size of it and the fact it jumped over a fence. Rabbits and hares run through fences and don't jump over them.
"I told my wife about it, thinking I was going mad, but then she saw something on the news about wallabies living in Britain and I decided that's what it must have been. I was pleased because it showed I wasn't going mad."
In January 2007, the Chron revealed how a motorist spotted one of the marsupials sitting by the side of the road at Maidford, near Towcester. These were followed by reports of a number of other sightings in Northamptonshire. Previous sightings have happened in Duston and in a back garden in Kettering Road, Northampton.
Wallabies, which are smaller than kangaroos, are normally found across Australia and Papua New Guinea but have become a regular feature at zoos and wildlife parks in Europe.
Chris Mullins, founder of Beastwatch, which records sightings of unusual creatures, said wallabies were spotted in the wild fairly often.
He said: "There are a number of wallaby colonies in Britain, up in Scotland and in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
"They survive in the wild quite easily because they are reasonably hardy and have very thick coats like sheep."
Single sightings were usually escapees from private collections at zoos, farms and garden centres, he added.
For details on beastwatch, visit www.beastwatch.co.uk.
Northants Evening Telegraph: 27th May 2009
