Loose wallaby captured in Pennsylvania, origins remain a mystery

Aug. 19 (UPI) -- The Pennsylvania Game Commission said a wallaby seen hopping on the loose on multiple occasions has been safely captured, but its origins remain a mystery.

The commission said game wardens responded to a call from residents Wednesday that the marsupial, a smaller cousin of the kangaroo, had been spotted near a Bethel Township field.

"They tried to approach it, but they couldn't get very close so they used animal immobilization equipment," Dustin Stoner, the Southeast Region's information and education supervisor, told the Lebanon Daily News. "They were able to secure it, put it in a transport device and they took it to a wildlife facility where it has recovered from the immobilization."

Stoner said officials plan to keep the male wallaby at the facility while the investigation into its origins is ongoing.

Pennsylvania requires facilities housing exotic animals to be licensed by the game commission, and facilities found to be illegally keeping such animals are subject to fines.

Officials said no wallabies have been reported missing in recent days. Game commission officials earlier said the wallaby might have been an illegal pet that escaped or was abandoned by its owner.

Residents of the Mount Zion area of Lebanon County captured photos and videos on numerous occasions over the course of the past week showing the wallaby hopping through residential neighborhoods.