Escaped baby wallaby nearly evades cops trying to capture it in Arizona, video shows
A baby wallaby made quite a getaway when he escaped after storms in Arizona blew open his enclosure — and the marsupial found a new home for himself and his brother in the process.
But the tough little critter didn’t let deputies capture him without a good fight, video from a Maricopa County deputy’s body camera shows.
The sheriff’s office posted the video to Facebook on Aug. 8.
“When our deputies say that no day is the same, they mean it!” officials said on the post. The deputy relays to the team they’ve “got a little kangaroo, maybe about 2 and a half feet tall” underneath a tree in the corner of some kind of enclosure.
Wallabies are actually different from kangaroos in several ways — most obviously in their much smaller size.
The deputy had gotten in touch with the zoo, which told them the wallaby had not escaped from zoo facilities.
That’s when Lisa Buccigrosse, owner of animal rescue organization Farm Angels Sanctuary, stepped in to help.
The deputy’s body camera shows Buccigrosse helping the rescue team set up soft nets around the wallaby, named Wally, to keep it from escaping and to lure it into a cage. But the wallaby nearly jumps over and out of the net, video shows.
“It just kind of happened,” Buccigrosse told McClatchy News on the phone. Although she didn’t have any experience with wallabies, she says she “literally just used strategy I would use for any scared animal that’s lost and confused.”
She says she drew from what she knows of animal psychology and tried to use techniques she thought would make Wally feel less stressed.
After the rescue, the wallaby’s owner reached out and offered to surrender another wallaby they had in their care.
Buccigrosse researched wallaby care and found that though they have different needs than the farm animals she’s used to caring for, with the right resources — such as space, setup and veterinary care — they could fit right in with the herd of rescued horses, cows, llamas, alpacas, pigs, sheep and goats, she said.
But they’re still wild, exotic animals, Buccigrosse said. And while it’s legal to have them in Arizona, that doesn’t mean anyone should.
Sheriff’s officials reminded the public that wallabies aren’t pets.
“Wallabies are wild animals that should not be kept in captivity,” deputies said in a comment on the Facebook post. “These beautiful boys are under the age of 1 year and have already been transported from Europe to the states, to Arizona” — and they’ve already been shuffled between five homes and sold at auction, officials said.
“Animals are not objects and are not for human entertainment.”
This story was originally published August 15, 2023 at 2:17 PM with the headline "Escaped baby wallaby nearly evades cops trying to capture it in Arizona, video shows."
