Missing wallaby's body found in field near eastern Ontario zoo

Last Updated: Thursday, November 13, 2008
CBC News

Wendell was a Bennett's red-necked wallaby like the one shown here. He escaped from a zoo on Oct. 28 during a snowstorm. (CBC)

Wendell the wallaby has been found dead in a field a short distance away from the private eastern Ontario zoo he escaped from two weeks ago.

"It's too bad it had to end this way because everyone wanted to meet Wendell," said his owner, Gary Saunders.

The body of the three-year-old wallaby has been sent to a veterinarian for an autopsy after being found by a volunteer Thursday morning. Found two kilometres from Wendell's pen at Saunders Country Critters, the body was in good condition and did not look as though it had been attacked by an animal, Saunders said.

"At least the body will be home," he added. "We can bury him. Running around in circles is finally over."

Saunders said he has been busy all morning phoning volunteers who had helped with the search to let them know the sad news.

Wendell, a Bennett's red-necked wallaby, was born in captivity and raised by the Saunders in an artificial pouch at their zoo near Kemptville, about 45 kilometres south of Ottawa. He escaped after a tree fell and breached the fence around his pen, during the season's first snowstorm the night of Oct. 28.

Shortly after, tracks that the zoo's owner believed were Wendell's were found near Athens — about 60 kilometres from the zoo — and people reported sightings of the wallaby in other parts of eastern Ontario, including Frankville, Lombardy and even Ottawa.

"With all the sightings and stuff … our hopes were always that he was going to be found," Saunders said. "Everytime somebody phoned in, it just renewed your hope."

Saunders said he's still confident the tracks seen near Athens were wallaby tracks.

"He may very well have been on his way home."