Brussels: A wolf is believed to have snatched a domesticated kangaroo in Belgium and wounded another in an overnight attack, a wolf expert told AFP on Wednesday.
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The missing marsupial is “probably dead”, eaten “as a Christmas meal” by the unidentified wild canine, the expert, Jan Loos, said, confirming information he had given to local media.
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The other kangaroo was bitten on the ear but survived and was in otherwise “good health,” he said.
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He said the kangaroos were kept by private owners in their garden in Balen, in northeast Belgium. Loos declined to identify them, saying he had promised not to do so.
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Officers in the local police station in Balen, contacted by AFP, said they were aware of the media reports but had no further information on the alleged attack.
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Loos, the director of a Belgian wolf and wildlife centre called Landschap, said he was called to the property by the owners.
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“I found wolf prints, so it’s quite sure it’s a wolf, but we’re not 100 percent sure which wolf,” he said.
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He suspected it was a wolf named August that has been spotted slipping back and forth over the nearby German border since mid-2018 and was known to roam in the region.
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“Normally a wolf eats deer and wild boar and sometimes sheep because they’re very easy” to catch, he said.
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The missing kangaroo, he said, was not very big, which would have made it easy to carry off. No remains have been found, he added.
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Kangaroos are native to Australia and not normally seen in Europe outside of zoos. However, a colony of dozens of wallabies, which are similar to but smaller than kangaroos, have been living in suburbs west of the French capital Paris for decades, since they escaped from a reserve.
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