A kangaroo maniac is at work: baby marsupials are disappearing en masse from Russian zoos

Over the course of a week, unknown persons stole two small females and a male from different zoos in Russia.

Two small female kangaroos were kidnapped on the night of September 29-30 in the Vorobyi park in the Kaluga region. Unknown people cut the net, entered the territory and put two kangaroos, which were born just the other day, in a bag. The babies didn't even have names yet.

And on September 28, the kangaroo Krosh disappeared from the zoo in Yaroslavl. Employees are sure that the male could not have escaped. The thieves didn't leave any evidence either.

The investigation suggested that these are all links in one chain - both cities, in principle, are located in central Russia, you can quickly get from Kaluga to Yaroslavl, but who could need kangaroos in such numbers? Maybe someone wants to open a private zoo?

“In my opinion, theft for a home zoo is a strange version, because it should be a very large area, surrounded by a solid fence at least 2 m high. I don’t know what species or species of kangaroo were there. But, most likely, this was done for subsequent sale,” Anton Bakalov, ecologist, Doctor of Biological Sciences, expressed his opinion.

The expert emphasized that the age of the stolen animals is important.

“If these are very small kangaroos, then they don’t have much of a chance to survive; they need careful feeding and a gradual transition to green food, plus the animals are quite stressful,” the ecologist added.

If it is not stolen by professionals caring for this species, then the cubs can quickly die.

“This seems like a very stupid idea to me. Initially... Kangaroo is not an African ostrich, not a goat or a sheep. They are too noticeable and exotic for not a single living soul to find out that someone has them and contact the police,” Bakalov concluded.

According to another version, the mass abduction of kangaroos is due to the fact that these animals do not exist alone, they need company. “However, without proper care, a small kangaroo will die faster than from hypothetical loneliness. And those who stole, most likely for resale, are indifferent to this moment.”