A mystery wallaby running wild in Cornwall has died after a car slammed into it.
Drivers on the A39 near St Columb could hardly believe their eyes after spotting a wallaby.
Footage shows the small kangaroo-like marsupial dodging cars on the busy A-road as it bounced between the vehicles with their headlights on.
Danny Johnson, a motorist from Newquay, said he was expecting to see a lost dog when traffic began to build up on Friday, but he was left ‘gobsmacked’ to see the wallaby ‘just sort of jumping around.’
However, officers have now confirmed that the animal was killed following the incident just before 10pm.
Devon and Cornwall Police said they found the wallaby had been ‘hit by a vehicle and had sadly died.’
It was taken to a local veterinary clinic, the force said.
It is not known where the cheeky animal has come from, but wallabies are said to be able to survive in Cornwall and elsewhere in the UK.
John Meek, from the Newquay Zoo and Screech Owl Sanctuary, said it was not one of their animals, according to the broadcaster.
Surprisingly, wallabies are not uncommon in the UK – although they are not a natural species.
Red-necked wallabies are small macropods resembling kangaroos, native to Australia and New Guinea.
However, the species can be found in the wild in Britain after animals escaped from zoos and private collections.
Most of the sightings have been recorded in the south of England, the BBC Science Focus said.
In 2020, there were 95 confirmed sightings according to researchers mapping the sightings.
What to do if you spot a wallaby in the wild?
As cute as the animals might be, people should steer clear if spotting them in the wild.
A spokesperson for RSPCA told the broadcaster: ‘Anyone who finds an injured wallaby in need of help should monitor the animal from a distance and call the RSPCA emergency line.’
Wallaby sightings should be recorded on the iRecord app.
But the ‘only danger is the cars,’ he said.
Danny told BBC News: ‘We saw it, we were really excited to see it because it’s not an animal that you see every day.
‘Then we heard about the news that it passed… definitely not good at all.
‘It was sad but there was nothing we could really do about it.
‘The police tried their best but, at the end of the day, there was nothing they could do, unfortunately.’
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