Ant remains at large
A wallaby who hopped from a farm park two weeks ago was briefly recaptured before escaping from red faced RSPCA inspectors for a third time!
Ant, who shares an enclosure with pal Dec, remains at large after dodging three attempts to catch him.
The seven-month-old wallaby went solo when he disappeared from Tiny Steps Petting Farm near Bourne, 12 days ago.
Despite numerous sightings in the local area, the escaped marsupial has eluded a team of volunteer wallaby wranglers.
In a bid to contain him, feeding stations have been installed in various locations to try to catch Ant.
On Saturday morning staff at the petting farm checked one of the traps and finally found Ant inside eating the food which had been left there to entice him in.
Have you seen Ant? | Photo: Tiny Steps Petting Farm
They rang for reinforcements to carefully begin the process of moving Ant home, and soon after two RSPCA inspectors arrived.
A blanket was put over the trap to keep Ant calm and the team carefully began to leave the area carrying the trap with Ant inside.
However, after travelling just six metres, the crafty wallaby managed to open the door and he hopped off.
In a post on Facebook, Tracey Hall, owner of Tiny Steps Petting Farm, said: “Words can’t adequately describe the frustration and upset at this happening.
“The trap is made for dogs, foxes and other UK mammals, none of which are even half as strong as a wallaby.
“The metal grille door was almost bent double. As you can imagine, there isn’t too much call in the UK for a wallaby trap.”
With Ant still on the loose, staff at the petting farm will continue to keep feeding him at a ‘very specific couple of locations’, and will be getting hold of a slightly different trap.
They have reminded people not to try chasing him but instead to message Tiny Steps if they spot him.
“He just seems not to be bothered by it at all,” said Ms Hall.
The farm park have not managed to figure out how Ant escaped in the first place.
And despite 15 volunteers standing by to swoop on the fugitive, “there just wasn’t enough” of them to round him up, added Ms Hall.
The pouched runaway has so far even managed to elude an RSPCA specialist called in to work alongside the volunteers.
Ant is thought to be still hiding out close to the farm and a feeding station built for him has been cleared out, suggesting he was “still at large and happy to be so”, Ms Hall said.
“It’s usual not to see much of him during the day and he blends very well into the environment”, she added.
Meanwhile, Dec, described as the “more cautious” of the pair, “doesn’t seem to be upset at all, he’s quite happy”, Mrs Hall said.
Both are Bennet’s Wallabies, and were born in the UK before they arrived at the farm in December.
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