Phantom kangaroo

The Menomonee Falls photograph

Phantom kangaroos are out-of-place animals, specifically kangaroos or wallabies, reported principally from the United States. Although escaped captive animals certainly factor into some sightings, phantom kangaroos are often reported from regions where no escapes have happened, and may even be present in Native American folklore, leading officials to identify them as misidentified rabbits, coatis, or maras. Loren Coleman additionally suggests that a number of American phantom kangaroo sightings may actually be sightings of devil monkeys.

Instances

Japan

Mayama kangaroo

Kangaroos have been sighted in the Mayama area of Osaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, since around 2002 (at the time of the 2009 report, it was mentioned that the series of reports began seven years earlier). As of March 2010, the city had received approximately 30 reports of sightings. In addition, according to the city, a television crew went to the area and randomly interviewed passersby, and found about 20 witnesses.

Identity and the possibility of its existence

When the Mayama Community Center personnel heard the sightings, they thought they might have misidentified deer or weasels, but the sheer number of reports and the reliability of the information led them to believe that these reports were not false.

According to Yagiyama Animal Park, a zoo in the prefecture, it is difficult for kangaroos to survive the Japanese winter unless they can find a very warm place. Zoologist Hideo Obara, on the other hand, noted that kangaroos are tolerant of cold environments and said, "It wouldn't be that unusual for a kangaroo to be living in Miyagi prefecture. Kangaroos are good at adapting to different environments and some species live in areas where the temperature gets below freezing."

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman wondered if, based on its reported size, this might actually be a wallaby rather than a kangaroo.

Ibaraki kangaroo

Japanese cryptid researcher Bintaro Yamaguchi stated that there have been cases of kangaroo sightings in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. According to him, this report was featured in a TV program called "Kotaete Chodai”.

United States of America

Arizonian kangaroo

In 1963 to 1965, a person by the name of "Workman" had an encounter with a kangaroo-like animal, this encounter was when he would stumble upon such a cryptid when he was placing branches and rocks on the rear wheels of his truck, as he noticed a strange animal coming towards him down the wash. The animal was four feet, had a head the shape of a greyhound, and resembled a kangaroo in appearance - with short brown slick hair and a tail that rose straight up behind it, ending with a curl at the top of it. The animal made no sound when it came across Workman, and remained standing, looking at him for a few moments before scurrying across the sandy wash and into the mesquite trees. Ron Quinn's drawing of the kangaroo (which is based off Workerman's drawing in terms of recollection, due to the fact that a friend of Ron, Walt, had moved so much that the whereabouts of the drawing and the letter that Workerman sent to Ron was essentially not known due to such moving) entails the same exact characteristics per Workerman's account, albeit Ron adds some commentary by saying that Workerman also mentioned other characteristics of the kangaroo-like animal, such as a lean body, smaller feet, a long and thin tail, and the animal carried the tail high above it while walking or standing. The kangaroo did not leave any tracks behind.

New Jersey

There have been reports of phantom kangaroos in New Jersey, and alongside that, is the fact that phantom kangaroos and the New Jersey devil seem to have a connection. The New Jersey devil, specifically the morphology of its body, seems to resemble that of a kangaroo, alongside the museum hoax, which was just a kangaroo painted with green stripes and affixed with fake wings. This seems to paint a picture that the inhabitants of New Jersey had known a creature that became mythologized over the course of several generations. Reports of a dead kangaroo or wallaby lying south of the old fairgrounds on Route 31 appeared during December of 2009, and it turned out that a neighbor's dog had gotten loose and came to the 6-foot fence where the 2 wallabies were penned in at Edelweiss Farm, to then dig under the fence, due to which the wallabies were stressed out and ran into the fence, got cut up, and died. The two wallabies were a mating pair, Wally and Polly, Polly had a baby in her pouch but the baby wallaby also died as well.

Oklahoma

In 2013, a video purportedly captured a kangaroo hopping in the fields whilst the hunter was recording. The video was published on YouTube, leading to speculation that the kangaroo in the video was Lucy Sparkles, a captive kangaroo that had been missing since Thanksgiving night in November 2012.

Wisconsin

In 1978, two men were able to snap a picture of a kangaroo or wallaby-like creature on the highway in Menomonee Falls, though the photograph is widely believed to be a hoax and the animal in the photo is a stuffed wallaby by the side of the road.

Theories

Escapee theory

In the majority of cases regarding phantom kangaroos/wallabies, most of them seem to concern kangaroos and wallabies that escaped from captivity, some examples to highlight this point include:

• The Forest of Rambouillet population, comprising 100 (estimated) red-necked wallabies, with the ancestors of the modern population being a colony from Tasmania that were transported to the "Reserve Zoologique de Sauvage" (translated in English as: Sauvage Zoological Reserve), that had escaped through holes in the fencing and into the forests in the 1970s. Some of the wallabies have even migrated as far as Ulis, approximately 40 kilometers east.

• Wallaby populations on the Isle of Man, descended from numerous groups of primarily red-necked wallabies that escaped from the Curraghs Wildlife Park during the 1960s and into the Ballaugh Curragh, and since the numerous escapes, the population of these feral colonies has expanded over the years, with a 2023 survey concluding that there were more than 560 wallabies living in the wild - and a report by "BH Wildlife Consultancy" combining drone survey data from 2023 and 2024 to estimate the amount of feral wallabies and goats concluding that the total amount of feral wallabies (with data combined from both 2023 and 2024) was 869.