Swiss wallaby’s six-kilometre hop from Lucerne farm ends with dart from moving car

Kids at a summer camp in Dietwil in Switzerland nearly choked on their lunch when a furry two-legged creature bounded out of the woods on Thursday. Some reckoned it was an oversized rabbit at first, but the long tail and proper leaping style soon put everyone straight. It was a wallaby, the smaller cousin of the kangaroo.

Camp staff tried tempting it with cucumber slices and lettuce leaves, yet the animal soon bounced off again. They rang Aargau cantonal police straight away. Officers checked around local farms and a regional zoo that keeps wallabies, but no one had reported anything missing. Three registered wallaby keepers operate in Aargau with eight animals between them, yet this one did not match any of those.

How a small hole sparked a media frenzy

Work on a water pipe had left a gap in the fence at a licensed wallaby farm in Inwil, just over the border in the canton of Lucerne. The marsupial squeezed through and covered roughly six kilometres before turning up near the youth camp. A short video of it hopping along the forest edge quickly spread online and kept Swiss journalists busy for a couple of days.

By Friday afternoon the search party, Aargau police, a vet and the owner – spotted the animal again in woodland only 300 metres from its enclosure. Christian Rapp, deputy head of the Swiss Large Animal Rescue Service, told regional broadcaster Tele M1 they managed to tranquilise it from a moving vehicle at a distance of about 17 metres. The wallaby is now safely back home.

Owner found and inquiries continue

Investigations tracked the owner to that licensed farm in Lucerne. Lucerne’s deputy cantonal veterinarian Tobias Frink confirmed checks are under way to establish exactly how the escape happened. Suitable steps could follow once the facts are clear.

This is not the first time an unusual animal has caused a stir in the area. Back in 2019 a fisherman reported what he thought was a caiman hunting ducks on Lake Hallwil. That turned out to be a large catfish with a water bird in its stomach.

Wallabies are still popular among a small number of private keepers as pets in Switzerland, though escapes like this one remind everyone how quickly things can go sideways if fencing is not perfect.