Walking couple spot hopping wallaby in woods

A WALLABY was spotted hopping in Lambridge Wood, Henley, by a pair of walkers.

Robin and Anne Taylor were on a walk from Badgemore Park Golf Club just before midday when they saw the marsupial, which was about 1m tall.

Mrs Taylor spotted the creature in vegetation beyond their footpath and took a photograph of it.

Mrs Taylor, 67, admitted to being surprised.

“It pretty much looked like a kangaroo,” she said. “I thought it was a wallaby because it was hopping. I think it hopped across the path and then stopped.

“It was there for a couple of minutes. I don’t know what it was looking at — it wasn’t looking at us.

“When it moved again, it was going in further away from us.”

Mrs Taylor, who is retired, and lives in Makins Road, Henley, said the animal didn’t seem worried by the couple’s presence. She said: “It wasn’t as shy as the deer — they won’t let you go anywhere near.” Mr Taylor, 74, said that when his wife alerted him, he replied that she had probably seen a deer but added: “When I looked at it, it was clearly a wallaby.

“It stood there for a while and Anne took a photo and then went a bit closer and took another photo and then it hopped off. It didn’t seem at all perturbed by us.”

The sighting comes just two weeks after a wallaby was spotted at the bottom of Northfield End in Henley.

Film footage showed the animal hopping along on the road in the early hours of May 22. It was filmed by Roman Gerashchenko, from Oxford, who was in a car with a friend.

The wallabies are thought to have escaped from captivity and are now living wild.