The most notorious roo-peat offender in Durango, Colorado, was once again seen hopping through town. Irwin, a pet kangaroo, first jumped through Durango as a baby in October 2024. On Monday, he showed that his escapist tendencies have followed him from the pouch to adolescence.
Irwin (named after Steve Irwin) was first caught in October when officers lured him with a large bag, banking on its similarity to a kangaroo pouch. But, when it came to catching a more grownup Irwin, local police officers had to come up with a different kanga-ruse, a new form of hop pursuit.
Released footage shows an officer approaching Irwin in a narrow corridor between a red fence and a brick house. Irwin attempts to jump past the officer (described by Durango’s police chief as “a big farm boy”), and lands in his arms instead. “We have the kangaroo detained,” another officer calls into dispatch.
Irwin’s confusion over his locale is understandable. Kangaroos, famed for their springy legs and long leaps, are native to Australia, and used to bouncing in more boundless spaces than a private owner can typically provide.
Kangaroos are legal to own in Colorado, one of many exotic animals on an eclectic list that includes three species of wallabies, poison dart frogs, emus, reindeer, caimans and African pygmy hedgehogs.
Escaped exotic pets are often linked to human repeat offenders. A Raleigh, North Carolina, man publicly apologized and turned in more than 75 snakes after failing to report an escaped zebra cobra six months earlier – and was seen on TikTok years later handling venomous snakes.
Fatalities from kangaroos are rare, but not without precedent. Last week, a man in South Carolina was found dead in a petting zoo’s kangaroo enclosure. In 2022, an Australian man was killed by a wild kangaroo he had kept as a pet.
