Wallaby 'waiting to cross village road'

A MOTORIST was caught on the hop when he spotted a wallaby beside a Northamptonshire country road.

The man, who asked not to be named, was driving on a road near Maidford, a village close to Towcester, when he saw a pair of eyes.

Thinking he had spotted a fox, the driver slowed down and turned his headlights up . . . only to discover a wallaby sitting by the side of the road.

He said: "I slowed down to see if it was a fox, as unusually, I hadn't seen one on the drive home for a long time.

"As I turned the full beams on, I was amazed to see it was a wallaby, sat upright by the side of the road, as if it was waiting for me to pass before bounding across.

"I have seen them in Sydney Zoo before and am certain it was a wallaby. It also looked much healthier than the ones I saw in Australia."

Recounting last Wednesday's unusual encounter with the Maidford marsupial at work the next day, he expected his colleagues to laugh at him.

However, instead of making fun of him, one colleague said he had seen one of the animals on the same road the previous year, a few miles away.

Chris Mullins, the founder of Beastwatch (UK), who records unusual creature sightings, said wallabies were spotted fairly often in parts of England.

He said: "There are two wallaby colonies in Buckinghamshire and one in Oxfordshire. Wallabies have been in Britain for some time.