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Odd kangaroo by conceptheim

The Phantom Kangaroo is a strange out-of-place marsupial that has been reported in many places. It basically looks like a normal kangaroo except for some reports of giant kangaroos.

Sightings[]

During the tornado of 1899 in Richmond, Wisconsin, a woman saw a kangaroo leaping across her backyard.

In 1934, a giant kangaroo supposedly killed and ate police dogs in Hamburg, Tennessee.

In 1958, Charles Wetzel saw a kangaroo chasing dogs near his cabin home in the Platte River near Grand Island, Nebraska.

Leonard Ciagi and Michael Byrne (two policemen) saw a kangaroo in an alley in 1974. The animal escaped by kicking Ciagi in the legs when he tried to handcuff the kangaroo.

In 1978, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, two men took a blurry picture of a kangaroo they saw in a bush.

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In 1981, Ray Ault, was tending to his sheep flock when a huge kangaroo came bounding past.

In 1999, a woman named Lois Eckhardt saw a big animal jump past cows on her farm in Wellman, Iowa.

In 2000, there were 4 sightings of a 6-foot kangaroo eating leaves in Lewisham, London.

In 2013 in Oklahoma a kangaroo was reportedly recorded by hunters in a field. The video was published on the website YouTube, and prompted speculation that the animal may be a pet kangaroo who went missing in the state just over a year earlier.

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Artist's depiction of a kangaroo in an American Landscape.

Possibilities[]

Most of the sightings were probably just escaped zoo kangaroos or wallabies, however some sightings do fit the description of an extinct type of giant short-faced kangaroo called Procoptodon. These animals were herbivores and lived in groups. There is really no explanation for kangaroos eating police dogs though unless it is a surviving Ekaltadeta, a predatory fanged kangaroo that lived in Australia over 10 million years ago. But killing the police dogs is possible for a herbivorous kangaroo if the kangaroo had rabies or had been attempting to defend itself.

Loren Coleman and Mark A. Hall theorise that some sightings of phantom kangaroos may actually be sightings of devil monkeys.

Though kangaroos and wallabies outside of Australia is not unheard of, the Isle of Man has been home to hundreds of wild wallabies ever since a pair escaped in the 1970s.

In Popular Culture[]

  • PhantomKangaroo

    Phantom Kangaroo as featured in MetaZoo: Cryptid Nation

    Phantom Kangaroos are featured in popular trading card game MetaZoo: Cryptid Nation.
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