A wallaby has gone missing from a Somerset farm after being frightened by fireworks, its owner has revealed.
The two-year-old male parma wallaby escaped his enclosure at the Glastonbury Egg Company and Hybrid Hens on 13 September, during the Glastonbury Tor Charter Fair in Herbies Field nearby.
Owner Simon Harding believes the “noise-reduced” fireworks used at the fair still spooked the small marsupial. “The silent fireworks weren’t so silent after all,” Harding wrote in a Facebook post. “I gave him a few days to see if he’d return, but there’s been no sign.”
Since the escape, Harding has searched extensively — even sending up a drone — but without success. Speaking to the BBC, he admitted he wasn’t optimistic about finding the animal. “It could just keep going and going. The problem is, we’re on the Somerset Levels — there are streams everywhere, and if it ends up in one with reeds, it could drown.”
The wallaby, about the size of a cat, has no name and has never lived outside captivity. Native to eastern Australia, parma wallabies are nocturnal, hiding in dense cover by day and grazing on grasses and herbs at night. They are typically grey-brown with a white chest and throat.
Harding is urging anyone in the area who spots the runaway marsupial to get in touch.