Pet wallaby takes off for Arlington river, owners worried about predators

The owner of a missing wallaby is hoping people will continue to keep an eye out for her lost pet after it got loose on Friday.

Gayle Van Alstyne of Maple Valley says wallabies make great pets and she’s feeling the loss perhaps even greater than you might for a missing dog or cat.

“I pouched raised her, from her momma’s pouch to cloth pouch,” Van Alstyne tells KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “You hand-raise them and they bond to you and you feed them around the clock with baby bottles.”

Van Alstyne says her wallaby, Bella, got loose when they were moving the animals at the Outback Kangaroo Farm near Arlington.

“When we pulled the cage toward the back of my Tahoe, it was a wire kennel and she got spooked and she jumped straight up. When she did that, the roof and the side of the kennel opened a little bit and she leaped through that opening off the back of my car and took off.”

A wallaby’s first reaction, when they’re spooked, is to run, Van Alstyne explains.

“Their number one defense mechanism in the wild is to flee. They know they’re prey and they know if they’re scared, they need to flee.”

Bella darted across SR 530 through a ravine and toward the river, Van Alstyne says. Feet and tail impressions were tracked to the banks of the Stillaguamish, but they found no wallaby.

“We found tracks where she was, but we couldn’t find her,” says Van Alstyne.

The search is still underway for the 6-year-old wallaby who is about 2-and-a-half feet tall and weighs 35 pounds.

The owners of Outback Kangaroo Farm, Joey and Ray Strom, say they’re worried the tame animal could become prey for a cougar or bear.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.