{"id":383055,"date":"2026-01-02T06:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T06:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/383055\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T06:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T06:17:10","slug":"n-j-wallabys-rescue-captured-on-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/383055\/","title":{"rendered":"N.J. wallaby’s rescue captured on video"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rex the wallaby has been found and returned to his home at a petting zoo in Williamstown, Gloucester County<\/a>, the Lots of Love Farm announced shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Rex, a 3-year-old male wallaby, had been missing since late Monday from Lots of Love Farm, said the farm\u2019s owner, Ron Layden, but was apprehended on Tuesday night at a nearby Walmart. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s all good,\u201d Layden said Wednesday. \u201cHe\u2019s in there eating hay, and he\u2019s nice and happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rex was captured without incident around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, with the help of a group of teenagers who had joined the search for the missing animal, Layden said.<\/p>\n

In a video of the capture provided by Lots of Love Farm, four young men can be seen wrangling the wallaby behind a fence near a retention pond. One is able to grab hold of it and carry it toward a waiting kennel. <\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s go!\u201d one of them shouts in celebration. <\/p>\n

The Walmart in question is located about a half-mile from Lots of Love Farm, where Layden said the agreeable wallaby had last been seen late Monday afternoon, around feeding time. Layden said Wednesday he believed an unsecured gate had allowed the animal to break free.<\/p>\n

The capture marked the conclusion of a dizzying 24-hour period in which the 3-foot wallaby captured the hearts and imaginations of local residents, while also garnering national attention. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy friend lives in Atlanta, and he called me up and said, \u2018Yo, he\u2019s on my TV!\u2019\u201c Layden said. <\/p>\n

Layden \u2014 whose farm includes goats, sheep, peacocks, a camel, \u201ca zebra-donkey mix, [and] a bunch of cows\u201d \u2014 said that while he had dealt with the occasional loose animal before, this was his farm\u2019s first wallaby escape. <\/p>\n

As word of the escape spread Tuesday, messages of concern and support had flooded the farm\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>, along with suggestions and reported possible sightings. <\/p>\n

Though some tips placed Rex as far away as Sicklerville, three miles from the farm, early sightings placed him near the Walmart, which suggests Rex never wandered too far. <\/p>\n

In a video posted online on Tuesday, an animal matching Rex\u2019s description could be seen hopping casually around an onlooker\u2019s vehicle in the well-lit Walmart parking lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a [expletive] kangaroo!\u201d the amazed onlooker yells in the video. <\/p>\n

As a result of the sudden notoriety, Layden said Wednesday that he plans to put Rex out over the weekend at the family\u2019s petting zoo<\/a>, which is open Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.<\/p>\n

A few days ago, Layden said, no one knew Rex existed.<\/p>\n

Now? <\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody wants to come see him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rex the wallaby has been found and returned to his home at a petting zoo in Williamstown, Gloucester…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,186708,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-383055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wallaby-rex-new-jersey","10":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}