Phantom kangaroo
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Periodically, reports of kangaroos, wallabies, or their accompanying footprints have been made in places where one would not expect them - in other words, anywhere besides Australia and its surrounding islands. Some explanations put forth are escaped zoo or circus animals, or publicity stunts by local businesses using photographs from Australia. Others suggest outbreaks of such sightings are a form of Mass hysteria.
United Kingdom
There is at least one verifiable example of a population of wild wallabies outside Australasia. Documented colonies of red-necked wallabies exist in the United Kingdom. In Derbyshire, a breeding colony has established itself after breaking loose from a private zoo in Leek, Staffordshire in the 1930s [1]. Their population peaked in the 1970s, reaching numbers between 60 and 70. There have been no confirmed sightings of the wallabies since 2000, however, with some locals believing they must have died out. Even so, other Wallby 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.
Germany
Another example reaches back further into the past. In the years before World War I, there was a colony of wallabies in Prussia, raised by a hunter living there. When he died, shortly before WWI, they became easy prey to local deer hunters.
United States
Another type of Kangaroo sighting that occurs is where no Zoo or circus is involved and people simply begin reporting that they have encountered a kangaroo or wallaby. The inital report often results in a rash of new reports. Sometimes photographs are producted of allaged kangaroo tracks. In cases where no kangaroo is ever captured, psychologists often refer to these sightings as flaps or examples of mass hysteria. Such reports are often met with the same reactions as a UFO sighting. Witnesses to these Phantom Kangaroo appearances are also sometimes accused of being drunk with the kangaroo taking the place of the pink elephants drunks are supposed to see when under the influence. Despite the negative attention such reports bring to witnesses, kangaroo sightings are frequent enough to be dealt with in Cryptozoological literature.
Selected sightings
- Tennessee 1934
- Chicago 1970s