Stunned walkers got an awful hop when they came across a dead wallaby on a north Dublin beach this week.
The male marsupial was discovered by locals out for a stroll in the strand beside the quiet village of Malahide on Monday.
A colony of around 100 red-necked wallabies have lived on nearby Lambay Island, which is around 4km off the coast of the seaside town, for the past 70 years.
It's likely the poor animal fell from a cliff and was carried by tides across to the mainland.
Native to Australia and New Guinea, the mob of mini-kangaroos has thrived on Lambay since being introduced to the island by its owner Rupert Baring in the 1950s.
A DSPCA spokesperson told Dublin Live it was likely that the wallaby was washed up on the beach after falling from a cliff on the island.
She added that they would contact the wildlife ranger to check up on the island colony to make sure that the wallabies there were all in good health.
Fingal County Council confirmed that one of their operations teams buried the animal on the beach yesterday.
Meanwhile on neighbouring Portmarnock beach, locals found a dead smooth hound shark on the shore this morning.
The area has seen a large number of animals wash up in recent weeks, from porpoises, dolphins and even an octopus.
A group of swimmers in Portmarnock even managed to rescue a beached common dolphin that became stranded last month.
