Swiss wallaby’s six-kilometre hop from Lucerne farm ends with dart from moving car

A wallaby escaped from a farm near Lucerne, Switzerland, and traveled roughly six kilometers before being captured. The marsupial, which looks like a cross between a rabbit and a kangaroo, startled campers at a summer camp in Dietwil before police and rescue workers tracked it down. The animal entered a water pipe gap in a fence at a licensed wallaby farm in Inwil, located just across the border in Lucerne canton.

Police spotted the wallaby again in woodland only 300 meters from its enclosure on Friday afternoon. It was tranquilized from a moving vehicle at a distance of about 17 meters and returned to its home. The incident highlights the risks of inadequate fencing for private animal keepers. This is not the first unusual animal sighting in the area, with a caiman believed to be hunting ducks on Lake Hallwil turning out to be a large catfish in 2019.