This is the moment a white wallaby was spotted hopping along a rural road in the dead of night – more than 10,000 miles away from its native home.
Julian Eley, 53, spotted the unusual marsupial while driving down a lane near the Essex/Suffolk border.
Driving in his Mercedes, he suddenly saw the white creature sitting by the side of the road.
Despite it being pitch black, the wallaby – native to Australia and New Guinea, could be seen as clear as day hopping along the tarmac.
It is believed to have escaped from a nearby wildlife park, but experts claim it ‘is not impossible’ it could be living in the wild.
Mr Eley said: ‘I was just so shocked, it was really surprising.
‘My wife wouldn’t believe me, I took her down the road a couple of times but I couldn’t see it anymore.
‘Now I’ve got it on video, she believes me.’
Buggs, of Sudbury, Suffolk, managed to capture his astounding find in Foxearth on a dash cam.
Julian Eley spotted a rare white wallaby (pictured) usually found in Australia and New Guinea while he was driving at night near the Essex/Suffolk border
Wallabys or macropods are relatives of the Kangaroo and usually only found on the other side of the world from England.
He added: ‘I just took the missus to work at 8pm and then went to walk the dog. It’s a nice drive down there with all the country roads.
‘I knew there was something in the area and I saw something on my drive around there before.
‘So I set my iPhone up on the off chance that I might see them and I just pressed record.
‘There’s more than one there, there’s three that I know of. A couple of cyclists have said they saw two in a row.
He was astounded to see the animal hopping along, 10,000 miles from its native home
Local animal experts believe the wallaby escaped from a nearby wildlife park, but said it ‘is not impossible’ that the creature could have been living in the wild
‘On the video, I took, you can see that there’s another one jumping into the bushes.
‘It was just a bit of fun but after a while the white wallaby wouldn’t move out the way so I couldn’t get past it and had to wait!’
Local wildlife experts say if the creature was in fact living in the wild, it would not have a good chance of survival.
A spokesman from the Suffolk Wildlife Trust said: ‘What a lovely unusual sighting! Our mammal experts say that it is unlikely that this is a wild wallaby but instead an escapee.
‘It isn’t impossible that it is from the wild but it is not something that we have heard of in the area before.
‘And it’s also unlikely that they would survive long in the wild particularly because they were seen so near to the road and motorists.’
White wallabies are relatives of the Kangaroo family and are bred in captivity in the UK