Wallabies and red squirrels spotted in city?
Anna Sexton
So the silly season's here and its arrival seems to have bought some unusual visitors to the city: a rare red squirrel and a wandering wallaby!>>Natasha Davis was at home in Netherfield, on Saturday morning, when she saw an unusual flash of red through a downstairs window."There was something that looked just like a red squirrel rummaging about in the bushes at the rear of my house," she said, "so I pulled back the lace curtains and grabbed my phone and started recording."It was about 12 feet away and really red. I could only record a few seconds at a time on my phone so I made a few videos, and contacted my dad for him to come over with his camera."By the time Natasha's dad, Terry, arrived it was too late.
But when the pair watched Natasha's videos they couldn't reach any conclusion other than a red squirrel had visited Netherfield.>> Prior to Natasha's 'red squirrel' sighting, an equally unfamiliar species was spotted – this time near Crownhill."It was short, a bit like a small deer, but with a fatter body," said the driver, who believes the stange animal was a wallaby."I did tell people but no one was able to offer any reasonable suggestions so I'd be interested to know of any similar sightings."I didn't immediately recognise the creature but suspect it may be a wallaby, having read reports of such creatures living in the wild in the region."The man, who doesn't want to be named, was on his way home from work at about 8.45pm on Monday last week when he saw the animal cross the V4 Watling Street near the Vauxhall garage.In May last year the Citizen received an amazing photograph and video of an albino wallaby hopping about near Olney. Could it be the wallaby has ventured into the heart of the city?Click here to read about last year's wallaby sighting.O Milton Keynes Council Wildlife Officer Chris Coppock was doubtful about the existence of a red squirrel in the city."It's very, very unlikely a red squirrel is actually in Milton Keynes, and it's worth remembering the more common grey squirrels can be tinged with red and perhaps from a distance look red."The real difference in the appearance of red and grey squirrels is their ears and size. Red squirrels have big tufts on their ears, and are much smaller than their grey counterparts."As for the wallaby, that is definitely more plausible. There are known colonies living in the country, which would have come from wallabies which escaped from zoos and parks."
Milton Keynes Citizen: 6th August 2008
