Wayward airport wallaby returns home
This is a cute animal story.
From AP:
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A wallaby that wandered the Salt Lake City airport after getting out of its kennel during a flight change is at its new home in the Black Hills. Somehow the 5-pound, 7-month-old male broke free Thursday and was rounded up by airport and SkyWest Airlines workers.
Roxy Bell, whose family owns The Roo Ranch near Deadwood, said vibrations likely caused the buckles on the side of the kennel to unlatch, creating enough of a crack between the top and bottom halves for the escape.
An initial report indicated the wallaby - a smaller, stockier version of a kangaroo - kicked the side out, but that wasn't the case, she said.
"I just don't want them to get a bad reputation. You know, 'Mean kangaroo gets out,'" Bell said. "They're not mean. They're very tame."
A young female wallaby in the same cage stayed put.
The incident didn't delay their trip from Oklahoma City to South Dakota. They arrived in Rapid City late Thursday evening, Bell said.
Marissa Snow, a SkyWest spokeswoman in St. George, Utah, said airport workers caught the young wallaby within five minutes after it hopped across the tarmac and onto another concourse.
"The safety of our passengers and live cargo is paramount to us, and I'm sure they were trying to do the right thing and take care of everyone involved," Snow said.
"It is a good reminder for people who are transporting live cargo to check their kennels and make sure they're in operating order."
The Black Hills, a family tourist destination, already is home to creature-oriented attractions such as Bear Country USA, Reptile Gardens and Trout Haven.
Bell, her husband and two adult children plan to add to that list by opening The Roo Ranch on Memorial Day weekend. It has roughly 50 kangaroos and wallabies housed in an old U.S. Forest Service building in Boulder Canyon near Deadwood.
Visitors can walk through and see eight species of the animals, many of them rare, and also pet some.
"We're trying to get a couple more species and are trying to become breeders for at least one type that's on the endangered species list," Bell said.
When transporting animals, The Roo Ranch uses kennels that are held together with screws, she said.
"We've shipped a lot," Bell said. "We've gotten some from the U.K. and I've never seen this happen before. It's just a strange happening."
The escape did help Bell find a name for the fugitive wallaby: Tarmac.