Police in Lancashire have been looking for a mystery marsupial after people reported seeing one near Garstang.
Officers heard about a kangaroo crossing a carriageway in Winmarleigh while they were running a rural crime operation in the area at the weekend.
Lancashire Police's Dave Kerfoot said he had been sceptical but added that seeing a photo of the animal showed he may have been "overly suspicious".
He said police were investigating where the animal was from and who owned it.
Kangaroo or wallaby?
· Kangaroos and wallabies are marsupials and are closely related, though adult kangaroos are larger than wallabies
· They can be identified via their teeth, which are different as kangaroos mainly eat grass while wallabies mostly eat leaves
· They are native to Australia and have been introduced in the UK in parks, zoos and farms
Source: Australia Zoo
He added that he had "suspected that it was residents wanting a Winmarleigh Wallaby to rival the Pilling Panther".
The Pilling Panther refers to rumoured sightings of a wildcat which is said to stalk the area around near the village of Pilling, which lies to the west of Winmarleigh.
A police spokesman said there were suggestions that the animal was not a kangaroo, but a wallaby, which may have escaped from a nearby farm.
He added that the weekend operation had seen officers stop and check 130 vehicles and arrest one driver on suspicion of drinking and driving.
Posts
