Kangaroos in the United States

Is there a hidden population of kangaroos in the United States? Sounds crazy. But the answer is....maybe. 

A while back, the now-defunct website Cryptozoology News ran a report from northeastern Tennessee (http://cryptozoologynews.com/kangaro-like-creature-seen-in-tennessee/). A witness spotted a kangaroo-like creature crossing the road late at night.

This is a description of the animal from the article:

The female passenger in his cab asked upon passing the spot where the car had swerved if my driver had seen “it”. When he told her he had not, she described the creature as something about 2 feet tall, running at a high rate of speed across the road on only its hind legs, and had the overall body shape of a Kangaroo. She said the creature was running towards the woods.

Tennessee is no stranger to kangaroo reports; in 1934, two police dogs were killed leading to a hunt for a kangaroo in Hamburg.

In the 1960s, a couple of noteworthy kangaroo incidents occurred. A kangaroo escaped from a circus in Hagerstown, Maryland in 1960. It was observed hoping through a shopping center parking lot. The kangaroo was captured in a nearby field after giving birth to a joey. After a “six-day fling,” an escaped kangaroo was captured in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1965.

There were reports of kangaroos in Illinois and Indiana during the mid-1970s. In 1974, two Chicago police officers corralled a kangaroo in an alley but it escaped by leaping over a fence.

Kangaroo sightings occur to this day in West Milford, New Jersey, long after the Jungle Habitat theme park closed its doors. (https://weirdnj.com/stories/abandoned/jungle-habitat/)

Police in New Jersey’s Raritan Township received a strange call in 2009. A caller reported a dead kangaroo on the side of the road. Two wallabies, named Wally and Polly were killed when they tried to escape from their pens.

An illegally kept kangaroo escaped from a home in Staten Island and was seen bouncing down the streets. Videos of the event can be viewed on YouTube. The story has a sad ending; the animal died recently in a New Jersey zoo.

For more on escaped kangaroos and "phantom kangaroos," consider reading my book Wild & Wonderful (and Paranormal) West Virginia.

Must watch videos:

Scary kangaroo: https://youtu.be/RpXxWQeho3M

Another scary kangaroo: https://youtu.be/YjJqro2xNm8

Kangaroo attacks car: https://youtu.be/VUF5RIDj1H4?t=23s

Kangaroo in Oklahoma: https://youtu.be/CriuV-yNqv4

Kangaroo on Staten Island: https://youtu.be/eseOkjgKgos

Sources:

“Escaped Kangaroo is Recaptured after Giving Birth to Joey.” Sedilia Democrat, July 27, 1960.

“Kangaroo Back in Hoosier Cage.” Rushville Republican, August 6, 1965.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/does-america-have-a-secret-kangaroo-population

“Illinois Man Sees Escaped Kangaroo.” New Castle News, April 7, 1976.

http://www.nj.com/hunterdon-county-democrat/index.ssf/2009/12/report_of_dead_kangaroo_along.html

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