Jul 12, 2006 - 02:10:01 CDT
An unusual pet bid "g'day" to his owner Monday night.Corey Botner, who lives southwest of Bismarck, said he was feeding his pet wallaroo, which is in the kangaroo family, Tuesday night. His new St. Bernard puppy, still a tiny white and brown ball of fur, frightened "Joe," and the wallaroo pushed through a gate and hopped away.
"They're very powerful animals," Botner said.
He said his family is very connected to their two wallaroos and is very concerned about Joe's disappearance.
"We're committed to these animals," he said.
Botner said he purchased Joe in January from Schreiner Farms in Washington, and he is now about a year old. He is around 4 feet tall with brown and black hair.
At a construction site near where Joe disappeared, Jesse Volk of Northern Improvement said the animal had not been seen.
"Not here," Volk said. "I saw some elephants, though."
Bismarck residents were largely incredulous that a kangaroo could be hopping around the area.
Bruce Brunner said he would probably laugh too hard to do anything if he saw a kangaroo hanging out in downtown Bismarck.
"I want to box with it," he said, laughing and putting up his hands.
Tammy Helmers said she had been working inside Ameriprise Financial near the Fifth Street and Main Avenue intersection all morning, but if she saw a kangaroo, she would be sure to call the police.
"Not a usual sight in Bismarck," she said, laughing.
Erika Dolan, 9, and Amy Dolan, 6, were enjoying a picnic in Sertoma Park near Dakota Zoo Tuesday afternoon while visiting from California. They and Marissa Koppy, 9 of Mandan, said they thought it might be cool to see a kangaroo. But would they want to play with it?
"Not really, because they kick,"Erika said.
Besides Joe, Botner also has a 7-month-old female wallaroo, named Jenny. He is planning on building a 100-foot by 100-foot pen for the two animals.
He said he was keeping Joe in a temporary pen outside for now, because the animal had outgrown living in the house in a diaper.
Jenny, who is gray and about the size of a small dog, still hops around Botner's house in a diaper.
Terry Lincoln, director of Dakota Zoo, said Botner had left messages asking for help in capturing his escaped pet. Lincoln said Dakota Zoo has wallabies, which also are in the kangaroo family, but no wallaroos.
Lincoln said pet kangaroo escapes are not uncommon.
"It's not a new thing for one of these to be running loose in different parts of the country," he said.
Wallaroos should be OK in North Dakota as long as the weather is warm and they have enough to eat, Lincoln said. Once the weather gets cold, they need shelter, he said.
The zoo director cautioned that wallaroos can develop "white muscle disease" if approached. Lincoln explained that the animals are easily stressed out and can become paralyzed and die when approached. That could make capturing the animal much harder, he said.
"Stress just hits them like a rock,"he said.
John Schreiner owns Schreiner Farms in Dallesport, Wash., and confirmed that Botner had purchased his wallaroos from Schreiner's 12,000-acre exotic animal ranch.
Though wild wallaroos may become stressed when approached, Schreiner thought Joe might not fare so poorly.
Wallaroos raised by Schreiner Farms are bottle-fed as babies and get to sleep under the covers with owners, Schreiner said.
"If they're not bottle-fed babies, they will get very stressed out," he said.
Schreiner said there are more than 60 species of kangaroos, and wallaroos are the only medium-sized animals in the family.
Wallaroos are herbivores and ruminants, so they eat similar foods to deer, Schreiner said. Purina has a line of exotic-animal food that features a pellet for kangaroos, he said.
"They are the funnest pet," he said. "It's the cutest pet."
Schreiner said more than 5 million kangaroos are killed in Australia every year and few can be shipped to the United States. About 400 wallaroos currently live in the United States, he said.
"My wallaroo won the lottery,"he said.
Schreiner Farms also raises other exotic animals, including camels, giraffes and zebras, Schreiner said.
A wallaroo costs between $2,000 and $4,000, he said.
Lynn Jacobs, animal warden at the Bismarck Police Department, said someone reported seeing a kangaroo Monday night, but she worries that other people may not believe what they see.
"They might think they got a whiff of something," she said.
Exotic animals like kangaroos are not allowed in Bismarck but can be licensed to live outside the city limits, she said.
The state Board of Animal Health regulates licensing, she said. Calls to the Board of Animal Health were not returned Tuesday.
Anyone who spots the marsupial should call Corey Botner at 226-7907. People should not approach the animal.
"It's nice to live in a city where a kangaroo getting lost generates this much interest," Botner said.
(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@;bismarcktribune.com.)
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