- Have you seen the wallaby? Email matthew.cox@mailonline.co.uk
Britons have been urged to report any wallaby sightings after the marsupial was spotted several times in Nottinghamshire over the summer.
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has concluded that the variety of reports makes it unlikely that they are due solely to escapes, suggesting that they are “surviving well”.
It is asking the public to report any sightings of the kangaroo-like creatures, native to Australasia and New Guinea, to determine if groups of them live together in the wild.
In August, golfers spotted a wallaby on a course near Southwell, Nottinghamshire, five miles from where one had been seen at Claverton a month earlier.
Additional sightings have been added to a map published by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust (NWT), which reveals the kangaroos were spotted more than 20 miles away, or about 12,000 hops.
Brits have been urged to report any wallaby sightings after the marsupial was spotted several times in Nottinghamshire over the summer, including this one in Calverton in July.
Additional sightings have been added to a map published by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, which reveals the kangaroos were spotted more than 20 miles away, or about 12,000 hops.
Attenborough Nature Reserve, managed by the local wildlife trust, said: “It looks less and less like a recent, isolated escape.”
“The more records are submitted, the better the picture of its possible presence and spread will be.”
An NWT spokesperson said: “We think they are surviving well – we know they are out there.”
However, there is not yet enough data to prove that there is a thriving, established population of kangaroos in the area.
Following the sighting at Oakmere Golf Club in August, the club’s director of golf, Daryl St John Jones, said: “I’ve been here for 28 years and we’ve never seen anything like a wallaby.”
He told the BBC: “My head greenkeeper sent me a photograph after seeing this animal, which looked like a wallaby, on the golf course,” said St John Jones, the club’s director of golf.
‘I thought it was a bit strange and that it was bothering me. I went there and couldn’t see it myself so I posted a photo on Facebook and then a member sent some photos.
‘It’s just completely unique. It’s a real surprise.’
The National Biodiversity Network Trust (NBN) told the BBC it is working alongside the NWT to record sightings of the wallaby.
People are encouraged to report sightings in the Northwest Territories. nature counts page.
Previous reports have placed them in Devon, the Peak District, Derbyshire, East Sussex and County Durham, with 411 kangaroos sighted in the UK, the NBN Trust reported.
While not native to the UK, wild marsupials are believed to have survived and bred after escaping from zoos.