Motorists on one of the Czech Republic’s busiest roads were warned Wednesday to be on the lookout for a wandering wallaby sighted near a stretch of the main motorway between Prague and the country’s second city, Brno.
The animal, thought to be a red-necked wallaby originally native to eastern Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, was sighted near the motorway around 8o kilometers south-east of the capital with motorists warned of the unusual danger on overhead panels.
Police said no disruption had been caused to traffic, although an motorists’ association reported disruption on a 15-kilometer stretch of the motorway. The Czech authorities dispatched a police team, aided by a local gamekeeper and trained dogs, to try and catch the mid-sized marsupial.
It was unclear on Wednesday where the animal could have come from. The zoo in the nearest city, Jihlava, denied that any of their three kangaroos were missing. A spokeswoman said, however, that she had been approached last week by people reporting sightings.
A private kangaroo farm around 20 kilometers from where the animal was spotted said it was not sure whether there had been any escapees, according to the novinky.cz website.
