![\"Danny](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0_Danny-described-the-wallaby-as-very-streetwise.png\")
<\/p>\nA North Devon woman was left stunned after she stumbled across a wallaby on the side of the road near Barnstaple.<\/p>\n
But as it turns out, the elusive hopper has been roaming the Devon countryside for the past three years.<\/p>\n
Vicky Wilkins was driving home at around 9.30pm on Tuesday (July 21) evening when she came across the unexpected site.<\/p>\n
Vicky told DevonLive: \u201cI just grabbed my phone because I thought no one\u2019s going to believe that I\u2019ve seen a wallaby by the side of the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was concerned about where he\u2019d come from and where he was going. I didn\u2019t want to grab him and scare him off.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wallaby appeared remarkably unfazed by the encounter.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy car just went up to him and he just sat there. He wasn\u2019t scared at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soon after, Vicky contacted Exmoor Zoo and Combe Martin Wildlife & Dinosaur Park, to check whether either of them was missing a wallaby. She said neither was.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought maybe it belonged to a private owner because he looked healthy and well-fed. It was just incredible to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
She later shared the video online in the hope someone might recognise the animal and reunite it with its owner.<\/p>\n
However, as it turns out the mystery wallaby may be something of a North Devon regular.<\/p>\n
Danny Reynolds, a partner at Exmoor Zoo said staff have known about the mysterious wallaby for years.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cAs far I\u2019m aware, we are not missing a wallaby. But we do know about this one. It\u2019s been living in the wild for about three years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Danny described the wallaby as “very streetwise”(Image: Vicky Wilkins)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve made numerous attempts to capture it and every single time, even with a team of 15 people, it\u2019s beaten us.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see it once and then you don\u2019t see it again for months. It\u2019s a bit like the Exmoor Beast, except this one poses for the occasional photo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite being native to Australia, Danny said wallabies are capable of surviving in the UK\u2019s climate, particularly in wooded areas with plenty of food.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve lived in the Peak District and the Scottish islands for years. The winters aren’t as severe as they used to be and they can survive pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the wallaby appears healthy, zoo staff say it would ideally be returned to captivity if it can be safely caught, although that is proving easier said than done.<\/p>\n
So for now, North Devon\u2019s most elusive resident remains one hop ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A North Devon woman was left stunned after she stumbled across a wallaby on the side of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1109849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3847],"tags":[90890,70,16,15,1717],"class_list":["post-1109848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-barnstaple","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1109848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1109849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1109848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1109848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1109848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}