Wallaby on the loose in Ireland
Stock photo: PA
The owners of a lost wallaby in Ireland have appealed to the public to help track him down.
The two-year-old male has been on the run for 10 days after escaping from his home in County Tyrone.
He is part of a family of wallabies owned by George and TG Troughton, who keep the animals as pets.
George told the BBC: "Maybe he's away looking for love, but it's County Tyrone, how many wallabies are there? He'd need to come back to get anything round here."
And his brother TG said :"He has the whole of Northern Ireland to run free at the moment but if we get a few nets we should be alright.
"I would like him back, simply because he'll be safe in here. I reckon he just wants to get back but he's got lost."
Mark Challis from Belfast Zoo said the missing animal should not pose a threat to the public, telling the BBC: "They are not, by nature, aggressive animals.
"They are tough enough to cope with our climate and they also eat a relatively wide range of green matter, grass leaves, some fruits, some leaves. At this time of year there would be quite a range of food items for them to eat.
"They are bright enough animals to know routines and develop routines and know who is looking after them."
He added that there were populations of wallabies that had escaped from zoos and were now living in the wild in places like Scotland and The Isle of Man, meaning they can successfully survive away from their native Australia.
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