Keighley wildlife (From Keighley News)

Keighley wildlife

2:50pm Thursday 27th August 2009

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An Oakworth family was astonished to encounter a wallaby bounding across the local moors.

The Hiscocks spotted the Australian marsupial in the darkness as they drove through Scartop.

They were so amazed that they reversed along the remote lane to get a better look.

They then followed the creature as it hopped along the road towards Oakworth.

Mark and Vicki Hiscock and their children Hannah, 13, and Charlie, 10, followed the three-foot-tall wallaby for several minutes.

Mark filmed the creature as it hopped along and ate branches.

Sightings of the wallaby have been reported in recent months several miles away between Colne and Skipton.

The Hiscocks had been returning from a camping holiday in Cornwall just before midnight on Sunday.

After a gruelling 10-hour drive they were crossing Oakworth Moor, near the Grouse pub.

Mark said: “We stopped and reversed the car because we wanted to check our own senses.

“Hannah thought we were hallucinating. Charlie woke up and couldn’t believe it.

“We followed the wallaby towards the Grouse for about half a mile.

“When it bounced it was very quick — it was lit up by our headlamps. It stopped by the side of the road to eat branches.

“It was aware of us. I tried talking to it in Skippy language but it didn’t seem to understand.

“We lost it at the side of the road where the heather was pretty tall.”

The wallaby seen by the Hiscocks could be a male, called Wally, that escaped from Far Hey Farm, in Barnoldswick, more than a year ago.

Sandra Harrison, from neighbouring Thornton Hall Farm Country Park, in Thornton-in-Craven, said Wally had been seen several times nearby.

She said he lived on the nearby moors, adding: “We’ve seen him quite near us. Whether he comes to see our female wallabies I don’t know. They are quite social animals and come back for a bit of how’s your father.”

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