Wallaby spotted in Edmonton

The fist thing that came to mind when I saw this was that Raffi song "Willoughby Wallaby Woo". Now I'm gonna have that damn song stuck in my head all day *sigh*.

On the bright side I don't have to worry about the "Sanford and Son" song being stuck in my any more. :lol:

There are some wallaby colonies in Britain.

There are several colonies scattered around the country, mostly in England.

Probably the most famous is the one living in the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire. It is a common occurrence for visitors to that beautiful part of the country to see wallabies bound across the road in front of their cars.

The Peak District's colony is a colony of Macropus rufogriseus banksianus or, in less formal terminology, the red-necked wallaby.

The wallabies are descended from a small group which escaped from a private zoo at Leek, Staffordshire in the 1930s, along with a number of deer and one yak (the yak was recaptured).

It seems unbelievable that Australian wallabies can survive in the often freezing cold, rainy, snowy and windy British climate, but in their native environments of Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria, Australia, they live at up to 4000ft, so snow and frost are not unusual conditions for them to encounter. The harsh winter of 1962 to 1963 nearly killed them off though- it is believed that only six or so of the creatures survived, and population regrowth was slow. The numbers were reported to rise as high as between 50 and 60 in the 1970s.

The Peak District is not the only place wallaby colonies exist in the UK; Scotland has some at Lady Arran, on one of Loch Lomonds' islands, and there are a few in Ashdown Forest, Sussex.

bbc.co.uk

There have also been reports of wallabies in Cornwall, in the far south west of England.

A photo was even taken of a wallaby which was spotted in St Breward, Cornwall. It was taken last year.

A photograph of one wallaby, taken by a motorist near a lane in St Breward, Cornwall follows several recent sightings of a male, female and baby in the area.

The animal seen by the driver is thought to be a male which escaped from a farm three years ago and was never caught. He appears to have found another escaped female, who was later pictured with a joey in her pouch.

After they were sighted last year there were fears the animals may not be able to survive the winter, but the new photographs suggest they have been able to adapt to the British climate.

A spokesperson for the RSPCA said the animal charity is often called to capture escaped wallabies, but it is rarer to find examples of them living in the wild in Britain.

She said: "Wallabies are quite hardy so they do survive quite well. They are breeding as well so they have been doing fine. It has been going on for several years and they have survived some pretty cold winters.

"There are definitely colonies across the country so people should not be surprised if they have seen them."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildli ... nwall.html

There are also wallabies near me, but which don't live wild. Last year when I volunteered for the Wildlife Trust with my next door neighbour we often went out in the countryside around Bolton and the surrounding areas, such as near Wigan and Manchester, to do all sorts of work which needs to be done in the countryside. But one day we had a leisure day instead and just went walking in the glorious countryside around a part of the Pennine hills. Whilst walking down the side of one of the hills, surrounded by glorious, green English countryside and rolling hills, we were surprised to see a group of wallabies bounding about inside a stone wall encosure which must have been part of a farm. It was an unusual sight.