‘Giant’ kangaroo missing since New Year’s Eve found 50 miles from home

A kangaroo that escaped from its owner on New Year’s Eve has been found – some 50 miles from home.

Skippy skipped town after getting spooked by the fireworks celebrations in Sternberg, a town in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Described by police as a ‘shy herbivore’, owner Jens Kohlhaus of Sternberger Burg had spent months trying to recapture Skippy.

But the fugitive marsupial was found hopping about Lüdersdorf, an area ofMecklenburg-Vorpommern about a 19-hour walk away, last Thursday, the news programme Tagesschau reported.

Skippy had been spotted in March between the towns of Sülten and Sagsdorf.

But four months later, Axel Rehse found the kangaroo lounging on a bundle of hay in his horse stable to escape the rain.

Reshe had spotted the kangaroo nibbling on the grass at a nearby meadow a few weeks ago only to catch Skippy inside the pen on July 3.

When Skippy snuck into the stable a second time the following day, Reshe managed to lock him inside.

‘He had a bite wound on his tail, probably from a fox, wolf or dog,’ Resche told Ostsee-Zeitung.

The species of kangaroo Skippy was not reported, though the newspaper described him as ‘giant’ and ‘grey’.

Kangaroos named Skippy being on the run in Germany isn’t as uncommon as you’d think.

A kangaroo also nicknamed Skippy escaped from a circus in the Schwarzwald-Baar district in 2021 – twice.

The kangaroo first fled when the circus set up shop in Bad Dürrheim in August before being recaptured after a week.

Skippy executed another escape plan the following month, managing to beeline it to the Black Forest, the German news network RND reported, before hopping along the district road 5724 between Sankt Georgen and Brogen.

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