Driver stunned after stumbling on 'kangaroo' hopping in middle of British road

29 May 2024 , 18:48

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Driver stunned after stumbling on 'kangaroo' hopping in middle of British road

This is the jaw-dropping moment a 'kangaroo' is seen hopping down a road in Cornwall.

The marsupial can be seen making its way down the quiet road in front of Kieran Adams' car. The 26-year-old quickly stopped and began filming the bizarre sight.

And while the critter may have fooled Kieran at first for the mammal indigenous to Australia, he has since agreed it is more likely to be a wallaby. The smaller creature, although native to Down Under, does exist in the UK wild and they're often kept as pets or on farms.

Kieran had been making his way home at around 5:30am on Tuesday from an overnight shift working on an upgrade project on the A30 when he spotted the surreal sight. In the video taken on a road between Truro and St Austell, he can be heard saying: "Since when did we have kangaroos in Cornwall? What is it? I'm telling you that's a kangaroo."

The animal, likely a wallaby, took Jack by surprise as he drove home from his night shift (Kieran Adams)

Kieran told CornwallLive he believes it was a wallaby, but said he has never seen one before. He explained he followed it along the road for about 10 minutes before it went off into a bush.

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"I was a bit shocked to see a wallaby in Cornwall, it was quite the sight to see," he said. "My parents joked that I've been working nights for too long, so I must have been seeing things.

"There aren't any zoos around that area so I wasn't sure where to report it but my mum said she would look into reporting it." Wallabies have been seen roaming British streets before, with one of the creatures seen hopping along a road in St Blazey, Cornwall, back in 2020.

Jack Carthey, 22, had been driving home from work late at night when he and girlfriend Megan Thomas, 19, spotted the creature, which they initially thought was a dog standing on its hind legs.

"I think if we didn't have the video nobody would have believed us. I mean even showing people the video they still don't quite believe it," he said. National Geographic states that wallabies are members of the kangaroo clan. They are found primarily in Australia and on nearby islands.

There are many wallaby species, grouped roughly by habitat: shrub wallabies, brush wallabies, and rock wallabies. Hare wallabies are named for their size and their hare-like behaviour.

Maxine Denton