Brits can't believe it as wild wallaby spotted hopping around UK's frozen fields

23 January 2023 , 16:08

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The animal was spotted in Sheffield (Image: James Ledger / SWNS)

An Australian animal has been spotted in the wild by locals in northern England who saw it hopping around a frozen field.

Residents in Sheffield, South Yorkshire were left puzzled over the weekend after the animal was seen numerous times in different fields around the city.

Despite the animals, which are normally used to the Australian sunshine, the wallaby was pictured on walkabout in the city as temperatures dropped to below zero.

James Ledger spotted the wallaby in the Mosborough area of the city on Friday, January 20 while he was walking his dog and said it was 'just crazy.'

He said: "I could just see it straight on and at first I thought it was a hare.

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The wallaby was spotted hopping through frozen fields (James Ledger / SWNS)

"But then as I got a little bit closer to it, it just started hopping off.

"I've just never had that experience before where I couldn't just believe what I was seeing.

"It was just crazy."

James, 40, added: "Quite a few stags and deers have been spotted around the fields where I live so I go out quite a lot with my dog to try and see one, because I've never seen one.

"That's what I was looking for really, to get a glance of a deer or a stag but then I never, ever expected to see a wallaby."

There are thought to be more than 1,000 in the UK (file image) (Getty Images/EyeEm)

Although wallabies usually live in Australia and Papua New Guinea, they have been spotted in the UK before.

In October last year, a video emerged of a wallaby hopping down a housing estate in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear and it is believed some live in Buxton, Derbyshire.

There are around 1,740 wallabies believed to be living in the UK, including those that are in the wild and those that kept as pets.

Kelly-Ann Mills