Confusion as driver finds lone wallaby on rural road in England

Locals in the south of England were left scratching their heads after a wallaby was spotted jumping on a regional road, thousands of kilometers away from its natural habitat in Australia.

The tiny creature, which was first mistaken for a kangaroo, was spotted in Cornwall, in the country’s far south, about five hours’ drive from London. Local Kieran Adams said he was driving along a quiet road at 5.30am on Tuesday when he made the startling discovery.

Adams, 26, said he initially thought the marsupial was a kangaroo before taking a closer look. “Since when do we have kangaroos in Cornwall? What is it? I’m telling you it’s a kangaroo,” he can be heard saying in video footage.

British man confused as ‘kangaroo’ spotted on road

Adams spoke to British media and confirmed that he later realized the animal was indeed a wallaby after following it down the road for about 10 minutes. “I was a bit shocked to see a wallaby in Cornwall, it was quite a sight to see,” he told CornwallLive.

“My parents joked that I’d been working nights for too long, so I must have seen things.”

Adams said what made the discovery even more confusing was the fact that “there aren’t many zoos” in the area. “So I wasn’t sure where to report, but my mom said she would look into reporting,” he said.

Although wallabies are native to Australia, they are kept in zoos and as pets – sometimes illegally – all over the world. In the UK, there are actually a few wild ulabis, although they are most commonly found on farms and in zoos. Another wallaby was also found roaming the streets of Cornwall in 2020.

Wallabies in the ‘wild’ around the world

It’s not the first time locals have been left baffled after finding the Australian animal overseas. Yahoo News Australia reported in November that Vietnamese authorities had captured a mob that was found on the outskirts of Cao Bang, a province in the country’s north.

Pictures appeared on social media in late 2023 that appeared to show three wallabies hanging around bushes. Vietnamese authorities claimed they were likely “brought from Australia by smugglers” who are said to have “dumped them along the Vietnam-China border” after they were discovered with the animals.

In fact, just last week, an escaped kangaroo was found wandering a neighborhood in Texas after escaping from its owner’s home.

Globally, the illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be worth $10 to $23 billion a year, according to the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and data collected by the University of New South Wales (UNSW). However, it is “almost impossible to say” exactly how many animals are smuggled annually.

Following Australian wildlife sightings from the UK

In 2023, Yahoo spoke to the British “Cookie”, a famous online wildlife hunter, who managed to track down a large number of famous wallabies in the UK’s Midlands. He captured the exciting moment on camera and uploaded it to TikTok, attracting more than 1.5 million views at the time.

Meanwhile, this year he shared a similarly successful discovery of a kookaburra in Scotland. “They’ve been known locally for a few years — they think the birds escaped from a wildlife park,” he told Yahoo News. “People had been taking pictures of them because they didn’t know what they were. They would land on washing lines or fences in people’s gardens and post photos online.”

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