bookmistres4ever
9-24-05, 04:54 AM
Sheriff: Kangaroo sightings may have been a large rodent
By the Associated Press
http://img.coxnewsweb.com/C/06/18/41/image_1841186.jpg
SPRINGFIELD | Despite what several citizens claim they've seen, Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly says he's pretty sure there aren't any kangaroos in western Ohio.
But Cindy Knisley of South Charleston said the four-legged creature that blocked her driveway and then hopped away Wednesday evening sure looked like a kangaroo.
She said other cars stopped, and people were giving chase down the road, but the long-legged animal, which Knisley estimates was three feet tall and weighed 30 pounds, disappeared into a soybean field.
Kelly and state wildlife officials say they're uncertain of what Knisley and her neighbors saw.
But after searching the Internet on Thursday, Kelly said the animal may be a Patagonian cavy (rhymes with navy), the world's second-largest rodent and a native of South America. It's related to the guinea pig.
He doesn't know where it came from.
The local wildlife officer was stumped.
"I'm used to deer and squirrels," said Byron Rice, the state Division of Wildlife officer assigned to Clark County. "This isn't really my thing."
By the Associated Press
http://img.coxnewsweb.com/C/06/18/41/image_1841186.jpg
SPRINGFIELD | Despite what several citizens claim they've seen, Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly says he's pretty sure there aren't any kangaroos in western Ohio.
But Cindy Knisley of South Charleston said the four-legged creature that blocked her driveway and then hopped away Wednesday evening sure looked like a kangaroo.
She said other cars stopped, and people were giving chase down the road, but the long-legged animal, which Knisley estimates was three feet tall and weighed 30 pounds, disappeared into a soybean field.
Kelly and state wildlife officials say they're uncertain of what Knisley and her neighbors saw.
But after searching the Internet on Thursday, Kelly said the animal may be a Patagonian cavy (rhymes with navy), the world's second-largest rodent and a native of South America. It's related to the guinea pig.
He doesn't know where it came from.
The local wildlife officer was stumped.
"I'm used to deer and squirrels," said Byron Rice, the state Division of Wildlife officer assigned to Clark County. "This isn't really my thing."