This past January, news reports kept the world informed of the trials and tribulations of a frostbitten feral "kangaroo" caught in a hard winter in Belgium. The oddity of a wild kangaroo--actually a Bennett's wallaby--on the loose in Europe captured media attention. In fact, there are several populations of feral macropods around the world.
For more than 50 years, a wild breeding population of Bennett's wallabies has been inhabiting the Peak District of Wiltshire, England. (The Bennett's wallaby is the Tasmanian subspecies of the widespread mainland red-necked wallaby.) Originally imported to England for a landowner's menagerie, the wallabies were released during World War II, which marked the end of many such private zoos. The area where the wallabies were set free is now a public park, but at last report, a group of about 15 wallabies still lived there, an English anomaly. Similar populations exist on the European mainland.
Perhaps the oddest group of exotic macropods is the population of brush-tailed rock-wallabies that since 1916 has inhabited Hawaii's Kalihi Valley on the island of Oahu. The group of about 100 wallabies is descended from a single pair bought by businessman Richard H. Trent for his private zoo. They escaped after harassment by neighborhood dogs.
Roos of the world roonite!
Or something.
Test test...
Posted by: Pixy Misa at February 20, 2004 09:55 PM