Wallaby spotted hopping around Highgate Cemetery in London

Visitors to Highgate West Cemetery in north London have spotted a wallaby hopping between the graves. Visitor and volunteer coordinator Melanie Wynyard said: “To spot a wallaby in London is quite strange.

“It’s quite extraordinary and so unexpected,” she said. “The West Cemetery is quite secure so it’s a mystery how he got in there but now he’s in, it’s quite a good place to be as he won’t be crossing the roads.”

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Highgate zoologist Maurice Melzak, who gives ecology advice to Highgate Cemetery, was one of two visitors who filmed the wallaby. He thinks it is a Bennett’s wallaby, a species known to be living in the wild in small colonies across the UK.

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Mr Melzak said: “Highgate Cemetery is a mysterious and wonderful place. It already has many non-native species, including all sorts of insects and arachnids, grey squirrels, ring-necked parakeets and the occasional muntjak deer. So maybe the odd wallaby isn’t such a bizarre notion?”