An incredible “coincidence” has occurred on an Australian street, baffling wildlife experts. For the second time in five years, residents have called for help after discovering a “kangaroo” on the roof of their house.
WIRES rescuer Inga Tiere told Yahoo News the animal was discovered just four houses away from where a near-identical incident occurred five years ago.
“When I got the call, I thought, ‘Oh God, I know what this is,’” she said.
Just as she suspected, it wasn’t a kangaroo she found on the roof, but a closely related wallaroo, the same species as last time.
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Is it rare to find a wallaroo on a roof?
The incidents occurred in Glen Alpine, a suburb in Sydney’s southwest, that’s close to an important wildlife corridor where the animals are frequently seen.
Whether it was the same animal is unclear, with Inga saying it’s “possible, but unlikely”.
Prior to 2020, WIRES hadn’t received a call to help a wallaroo on a roof in 30 years of operation, but whether it will happen again is anyone’s guess.
“Lightning does strike twice in the same place, sometimes more than twice,” Inga said.
A wallaroo discovered on the roof of a home in 2025 (left) and in 2020 (right). Source: WIRES
How did the wallaroo end up on a roof?
The species’ behaviour is quite different from kangaroos, because they’re largely solitary and are more easily startled.
“It could have been frightened by a barking dog, it could have been chased by something, we don’t know,” Inga said.
“But they go immediately into fight or flight response”.
It’s believed the animal hopped onto a raised garden bed and then made its way onto the roof on a morning in November.
A couple who lived in the home were startled to find it staring at them through a high window.
The response had to be calm and measured because macropods like wallaroos suffer from stress myopathy – an ordinarily fatal condition that’s triggered by stress.
Inga coaxed the animal towards a pergola and then watched as it jumped down through a gap in the roof.
While landing safety from that height would be a challenge for humans, she was confident it was achievable for the wallaroo.
It then squeezed through a hole in the fence, along a quiet road, and into the bush.
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