# You won't believe what I saw...



## MerlinsMum (Aug 2, 2009)

.... beside the busy A27 road today in Hampshire near Emsworth.

Dead unfortunately..... and there's nowhere there to stop the car or turn round as it's dual carriageway and the next turning isn't til Chichester several miles on so sadly no pics.

The strangest roadkill I've ever seen in the UK... 
unmistakably a *WALLABY*!!!!!.

My friend who commuted along that road daily for several years confirmed it as the 4th sighting of them she's seen, 2 dead 2 live but all the others were nearer to Chichester. One of her co-workers who also commuted has seen them twice.

I kid you not, this is god's honest truth!


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## jill3 (Feb 18, 2009)

Poor Wallaby. When ever i see an animal dead on the road it makes me feel so sad!
I never knew we had them in this country. Having read this i went on the internet and they say that some of them live in the south of the country, some in Derbyshire and that there is a colony at Loch Lomand.
I will keep a look out now when i'm out and about.
You learn some thing new every day.


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## Colsy (Oct 3, 2008)

Oh thats really sad.
I will have to keep my eyes open when driving about in this area.


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## MerlinsMum (Aug 2, 2009)

Got sterling silver model of wallaby roadkill? That would be nice. And on topic.... lol


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## waterlilyold (Aug 28, 2009)

God thats so appropriate isn't it 

I hate seeing animals killed by cars, it is so tragic. Here there are always lizards and birds on the road. Occasionally a poor kangaroo gets hit and it's really horrible especially when theres a joey in the pouch.


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

It wouldn't suprise me if people who can't care for them properly have released them into the wid


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## MerlinsMum (Aug 2, 2009)

There seems to be a few wild wallaby colonies dotted about the English countryside - a friend tells me some have been spotted near Dorchester in Dorset.

And from here:
UK Cryptozoological Pages.

_UK Wallabies

There was a breeding colony of wallabies around Ashdown Forest and St Leonard's Forest in Sussex in the 1940s, supposed to have originated from Leonardslee Park near Horsham. They spread east as far as Storrington by the 1970s, and there were sightings around Chichester in the next two decades. I don't know of any recent confirmed reports, though they are said to be still living in Ashdown Forest.

Another colony lives around the Chiltern Hills on the Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire border, and seems to be thriving 
despite itself. Five were killed on roads in 2004 alone and another one drowned in a swimming pool. One seems to have turned to crime, as DNA tests on blood found after a break-in at Henley on Thames in 2002 found the culprit was a wallaby.

They've been reported on Dunstable Downs just north of the Chilterns for many years and are said to have originatedfrom Whipsnade Zoo, but Lord Rothschild was keeping them in complete freedom at Tring in the nineteenth century,so they may have a longer history.

A new group seems to be becoming established about 20 miles north of these, on the Northamptonshire/Bucks border between Milton Keynes and Northampton, with occasional reports/photos/road kills in the last few years.
Two of these were albinos � the first met a sad demise under the wheels of a local vicar on the M1 in 2005, but a second was photographed in May this year.

Odd reports from other counties seem to be escapees rather than breeding groups, though sightings near Burton on Trent in 2002 and 2005 might suggest the remnants of the Peak District colony have moved south to lower ground._​


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## Guest (Nov 17, 2009)

I used to see Wallabies around St Leonards Forest when I was young, but haven't seen any for quite a few years now, however a local vet has a couple in an enclosure with a muntjac, and I believe that these had been road casualties


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## Columbo (Nov 20, 2009)

What would you do if you found a deer lying in the road dying?
Drive over it, you sick b######


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## CarolineH (Aug 4, 2009)

Wallabies can be bought as pets in the UK so I am not surprised if there are more colonies springing up. So sad that they are being killed on roads though, such a shame.


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## Columbo (Nov 20, 2009)

Gretoltud said:


> No. I couldnt harm an animal for the sake of it but i couldnt see it suffer either.
> You would need something very heavy like a Range Rover or a Misubishi Canter to kill a deer.
> A Reliant Rialto would simply bounce over it.


Think some one should drive over you.
animal, they are friends to us, next you will tell us that you shot them "just for fum"


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## MerlinsMum (Aug 2, 2009)

CarolineH said:


> Wallabies can be bought as pets in the UK so I am not surprised if there are more colonies springing up. So sad that they are being killed on roads though, such a shame.


I think in this case it's a long-established but small (mind you, how do we know how small!) wallaby colony that's been around for a few decades and is now slowly moving westwards. (See my quote from the cryptozoological site above).

I am a bit gobsmacked cos I do walk my dog there now & again, in that area near the road but in fields and there's been no hint of them this far west.

I guess I might upset some people by saying my friend and I cracked a lot of jokes after seeing it there, along the lines of Wallaby roadkill recipes... maybe if we _had_ been able to park and saw it was still alive we'd have felt we needed to do something, but that would probably have meant bundling it into the boot and driving on to Chichester in search of the nearest vet!

I do know in more remote areas, people have to do what they can (I lived in the New Forest for a while) but not entirely sure any graphic descriptions of action taken are appropriate on here :001_huh:


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## CarolineH (Aug 4, 2009)

My husband accidently killed a deer last year with a Vauxhall Astra van.  It died instantly. So did the van for a while!

No you're right Merlinsmum. We don't need graphic descriptions. Enough is killed on the road accidently let alone deliberately.


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## The sheep man (Nov 21, 2009)

The strangers road kill I saw was when some drugged up driver drove through my neighbours fence and killed 5 of his sheep in the field! :frown2:

One sheep was stuck through the front grill like one of those Garfield teddies of a few years ago.

Although the car was there for several days, not a single person pinched any thing off the car! 

I had a photo of it; if I can find it I will post the pic.


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## Marcia (Mar 10, 2009)

The sheep man said:


> The strangers road kill I saw was when some drugged up driver drove through my neighbours fence and killed 5 of his sheep in the field! :frown2:
> 
> One sheep was stuck through the front grill like one of those Garfield teddies of a few years ago.
> 
> ...


I don't think it's very appropriate to post a pic of a dead sheep


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