They don’t do any harm, don’t compete with any native species, and are generally conceded to be pretty cool, so they are given some protection by the state (and more by the terrain). You can see some of the terrain at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a6ABF9NeMk

-oz

For the record, Cloquet is in the Northeastern part of Minnesota and the zoo 25 miles away would be in Duluth. I don’t remember seeing any kangaroos or wallabys there when I’ve visited it but the last time was some years ago.

My favorite Minnesota kangaroo story Occured near Garrison, Minnesota on the west shore of Mille Lac Lake in central Minnesota an hour north of Minneapolis. This happened, I believe in the early ’90s. A man was on his way to Hallock, Minnesota (in the far Northwestern corner of the state) to rejoin a small circus with his trained kangaroo act. While staying overnight in Garrison, the kangaroo made a break for it and was on the lam for several days. It was eventually caught in a DNR deer trap but there were surprisingly few sightings reported. The reason was probably best summed up by an elderly man who, after the kangaroo was captured, came forward to say he had seen it hop by his trailer one evening but declined to tell anyone at the time because he was sure if he had said anything his wife would have put him in a home right then and there!

There was also a wallaby hoax around the town of Zumbrota about 40 miles Southeast of Minnapolis-St. Paul in the “60s (I think) when a town jokester looking to both liven things up and generate some publicity borrowed a wallaby and released it in the area. A wallaby hunt was gotten up with much attendent publicity and it was eventually recaptured. Zumbrota even held a Wallaby Days festival for several years thereafter.

Unfortunately, we have not heard anything about kangaroos in the area.

One of our Officers did catch a black bear on his squad video about 5 years ago (which is rare but not unique in this area of the state).

I always had a problem with that kangaroo. Firstly, in the ’70’s, a suburb of Milwaukee called Waukesha was dubbed ‘Kangaroo County’ because of the loads of reports of kangaroos hopping around out there. They were seen at all times of the year, and apparently none of them died out during the winter. Besides, the pic they sent around of the one they caught looked like it had a real thick winter coat and could easily survive a winter here, especially holed up in a barn or other outbuilding, which apparently this one was.

Secondly, to this day, not one person has ever come forward to claim ownership of or the knowledge of where it came from. If this was a pet, or a zoo loss, or a transfer from a circus or something, somebody would have said something about losing a kangaroo! But no one has.

So, who knows, maybe Loren knows more about this, but I will supply a link to the [outdated] basics of this story. And to that end, please Minnesota, keep your kangaroos to yourself, we here in Wisconsin have enough of our own!!

David,
Sydney NSW Australia.

One question:

Were these reports of MULTIPLE kangaroos seen AT ONE TIME? Just asking.