Mississippi ‘Roos On the Run

Mississippi is in the midst of a rash of kangaroo sightings. Here is a summary of what the wire services are reporting about the specifics.

Bay St. Louis, Miss. (AP) – A kangaroo may be on the loose in Mississippi.

Animal-control officers in Bay Saint Louis say there have been several reports in the past few days of a kangaroo hopping along U.S. 90.

The mayor says he’s heard reports of people seeing a kangaroo four or five different times, and at first he wondered if someone was just joking around.

Some officials suspect the animal was someone’s pet that may have escaped.

Based on eyewitness accounts, the kangaroo is about four feet tall…. “Mississippi residents report kangaroo sightings,” Associated Press – August 8, 2007.

Gulfport’s Sun Herald reporter Ryan LaFontaine appears to be the source of the original article about accounts of sightings in the past few days of a kangaroo near Seminary Drive and U.S. 90.

Mayor Eddie Favre told LaFontaine: “It could be someone had the kangaroo and it got loose or it may be a case where the kangaroo came in with Katrina and has been here ever since.”

The reporter also mentioned other exotic animals of the recent past near there:

The ‘roo seems to be the latest addition to South Mississippi’s “wild kingdom.” In 2004, Bay police spent four days searching in drainage ditches and under houses for a missing 17-foot Burmese python. Police in Waveland pulled a nine-foot alligator from a ditch near a neighborhood bus stop in May. There were reports of wild pigs in Hancock County last year and more in Gulfport last month.

Nearly four months after the python terrorized Union Street residents, the Bay City Council drafted a proposal to ban more than 100 different species of exotic animals, including hippopotamuses, giraffes, some reptiles and kangaroos. But the council failed to adopt the regulation when a handful of residents protested later that year. by Ryan LaFontaine, “Case of the cagey kangaroo,” Sun Herald, Wednesday, August 8, 2007.

Thanks to d bard for the heads up on this new series.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

Email • Facebook • Twitter •