Windsor
Kangaroo escapes southwestern Ontario zoo, found safe several kilometres awayFor the second time in just over a month, a kangaroo has escaped an Ontario zoo — this time in Chatham-Kent. Police say the animal got out of Greenview Park and Zoo, located in the hamlet of Morpeth.
How animal escaped is unknown
Bob Becken · CBC News
· Posted: Jan 10, 2024 12:27 PM EST | Last Updated: 10 hours ago
This kangaroo was spotted in the Ridgetown, Ont., area on Tuesday. (Lexi Prochnicki)For the second time in just over a month, a kangaroo has escaped in connection with an Ontario zoo — this time in Chatham-Kent.
According to municipal police, the animal got out of Greenview Park and Zoo, located in the hamlet of Morpeth.
Police say it was later tracked down several kilometres away near Ridgetown on Tuesday.
Lambton OPP also warned a kangaroo was spotted on Douglas Line northeast of Sarnia on Tuesday. Police later confirmed it was the same animal captured in Chatham-Kent.
Police said mischief charges “are being considered” for the person that reported the sighting to Lambton OPP.
These are just the latest incidents of kangaroos getting loose in Ontario. In early December, one of the animals was loose in the Durham Region as it was en route to a zoo, then later captured.
The kangaroo was spotted in Chatham-Kent after escaping the Greenview Park and Zoo. (Lexi Prochnicki)Chatham-Kent police said in a statement that if residents thought they spotted a kangaroo hopping around the area of Reeder’s Line in the former Howard Township in the Morpeth area, they “were not hallucinating.”
Chatham’s Lexi Prochnicki said she was out making Amazon deliveries in the Ridgetown area when she noticed the animal.
“I figured it was a deer at first,” she told CBC News. “I see so many of them on my route but then I realized deer don’t have tiny arms. I hit the brake and backed up, sure enough it was a kangaroo.”
WATCH | Kangaroos could pose danger, advocate says
What could happen if you run into a kangaroo on the street?Ron Laidlaw, executive director of Zoocheck, speaks about the dangers marsupials could pose, after Ontario saw another kangaroo make an escape from a zoo.
Prochnicki said another person in the area contacted the zoo and not long afterward, a police officer pulled up.
“The kangaroo didn’t seem to be afraid or anything … just out for a stroll.”
The “short-lived adventure” for the animal, as police put it, isn’t to be taken lightly, according to a University of Windsor associate professor of anthrozoology.
The kangaroo escaped from Greenview Park and Zoo in Morpeth, Ont. (Lexi Prochnicki)Beth Daly compares it to the adage of dogs getting scared during fireworks and taking off because of the overwhelming sound.
“That always makes me think about any wild animal that’s living out of its environment or living in these kinds of cages,” she said.
WATCH | Escaped kangaroo caught east of Toronto
Escaped kangaroo caught east of TorontoA kangaroo that’s been on the run east of Toronto since last week has been found and captured, and is set to go to the Oshawa Zoo for a health checkup, police in Durham Region said.
Daly said that when exotic animals are loose, they’re motivated by the fear of having no idea where they are.
“Suddenly they’re in these crazy anthropogenic environments where they have no idea where they are or what they’re in. And I should think, as with most wild animals, their instinct is to simply run, fight or flight.”
Daly said word of the escape made her “cringe.”
Beth Daly, an anthrozoology professor at the University of Windsor, says that when exotic animals are loose, they’re motivated by the fear of having no idea where they are. (Tom Addison/CBC)”Ontario doesn’t have regulations for roadside zoos. It’s an ongoing public issue for animal welfare people. It’s just very disturbing. If I wanted to open a roadside zoo in Windsor, I would just go get the animals I want and get a license and I could have a roadside zoo in my backyard or out of my van.”
Exactly how the kangaroo escaped is unknown. However, police said it was returned safely to the zoo.
CBC News contacted Greenview Park and Zoo, but didn’t receive a response ahead of publication.
‘This is going to continue’Michèle Hamers, the wildlife campaign manager for the group World Animal Protection Canada, isn’t speculating on how the animal could have escaped. But she’s critical of the lack of government oversight at roadside zoos in Ontario, which she says are not regulated at the provincial level.
“My initial reaction [to the news] was ‘another one,’ she said, referring to multiple instances in recent months where animals have escaped from zoos.
“How is this possible that this continues to happen?”
Next time an animal escapes from a roadside zoo, it could be one that’s more dangerous to the public, like a lion or a tiger, she said.
“This is going to continue to happen until these roadside zoos are finally addressed and situations improve, or if these places are closed down,” she said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bob Becken is with CBC’s digital team. Previously, he was an executive producer with CBC Windsor, and held broadcast and digital news director duties with Bell Media and Blackburn Media. You can reach him at bob.becken@cbc.ca.
With files from Kathleen Saylors
