Errant Kangaroo Alert!
Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 21st, 2008
Okay, out-of-place alligators are one thing, but things are getting serious now.
Here is the first report in a long time of an out-of-place encounter of the Mystery Marsupial kind. This cryptid kangaroo sighting is from Florida, with the first sighting taking place during the second week of June 2008.
No news about these cryptid critters has been heard since those sightings of Mystery Kangaroos in Mississippi, last August 2007.
Of course, other Mystery Kangaroo reports from past years on Cryptomundo can be found from Austria, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Or who can forget the “Killer Kangaroos” of 1934?
Accounts of cryptid ‘roos in the Midwest USA, especially of the classic flap of 1978, are chronicled, in depth, in Mysterious America.
The latest comes in from the Sunshine State:
A large animal — possibly a kangaroo — has been spotted twice on the Pensacola Junior College main campus on Ninth Avenue.
Campus police said the first sighting occurred a week ago when a large animal — believed to be about 5 feet tall — was seen jumping into bushes, PJC Police Chief Nancy Newland said this morning.On Wednesday morning [June 18, 2008], a custodian saw what she thought was a kangaroo hopping on campus, said Newland, who has worked in law enforcement for more than 30 years.
“We have rumors of two other sighting on campus,” she said. “We called The Zoo (Northwest Florida) and the circus, and no one is missing a kangaroo.”
Newland said police have checked to see if anyone is the area has a license to keep exotic animals, but the search has yielded no leads.
“We are still searching anytime we get a reported sighting … even if it’s three in the morning,” she said. “We are just as perplexed as everyone.”“Are You Missing A Kangaroo” by Sean Dugas, Pensacola News Journal, June 19. 2008.
Anyone else hear anything more about these sightings?
Our thanks to Mike Ensley for bringing them to our attention.
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.
Newland said police have checked to see if anyone is the area has a license to keep exotic animals, but the search has yielded no leads.
duh…I can almost guarantee the parties involved are not going to be legal. Why do you think these things are out and about? Someone(s) did a poor job containing them and now are scared and probably embarrassed to say anything. Although, being a college campus, I wouldn’t put it past anyone to have brought them in as a prank. Maybe they should extend their “ownership” search radius. I can remember getting pretty ingenious with my pranks in college, so I’m thinking that if it is a prank, the ones pulling it might have been willing to “go the extra mile” shall we say.
There’s also a zoo in Gulf Shores, AL, literally a hop, skip, and jump from Pensacola. But a lone kangaroo crossing the bay unaided and unnoticed is hard to imagine.
Maybe it’s a prank pulled by some guys at the FloraBama roadhouse who grew bored with tossing mullets?
I would question the frat guys…
And the sororities for equality’s sake…
Could be an escaped ‘Roo.
I volunteer to interview the sorority sisters.
(all for the sake of science, of course)
How big’s the bay? Kangaroos have been known to swim some distance – including in the ocean.
If they can swim, then I suppose crossing the bay is a possibility. It’s not that wide.
I’ve lived in Ft. Lauderdale Florida for 3 years (I use to live in Tennessee). I was walking near the Oak Tree golf club and a creature dashed through some trees on west side of the course. At first I figured it was just a large rabbit or skinny dog (maybe a whippet????), but when i went for a closer look I saw it was a small kangaroo. I did some research and quickly learned kangaroos are not native to Florida. This sighting concerns me since I own a Shetland Sheepdog and I don’t know if kangaroos eat those. Please let me know if you have heard anything! I’m very concerned and don’t know if I should report this to a zoo or animal police!!
Oh my goodness – I also recently saw an unusually small kangaroo (maybe a baby?)! I was at Berman Park in a suburb of Fort Lauderdale with my partner when it hopped out in front of us! It looked just like this:
http://critteristic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/baby-kangaroo-legs-500.jpg