One of the two wallabies that went missing from a fishery earlier this week from a fishery in the region of Midlothian has been netted today.

The other wallaby was caught day before yesterday by a marksman. Both creatures, known as swift swimmers, escaped from a pond at Leadburn Manor in West Linton.

After spotting the 2ft creature in a 40-acre swamp, the Manor people used a big fishing net to lasso it back to land, but not before spending much effort and time as it put up a valiant fight to avoid getting caught.

Owner of Leadburn Manor Francis Gilhooly said he had almost given up hopes of finding the wallaby after several searches. “We searched the area 30 times for the second wallaby and just as I had given up I saw him sitting in the long grass at one of the ponds, eating”, Gilhooly said.

“The man who sold the wallabies to us told us that wallabies hate swimming so it would be fine for us to put them on one of our three acre islands. However, within six hours of us buying them they were furiously swimming off the island”, he added, saying that the ordeal was “heartbreaking and traumatic” for both the wallabies and the men looking for them.

According to the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, wallabies can swim at a speed of up to 40 miles per hour, which makes it a very tricky business to catch them.

“We will not be releasing them back onto that island because we can’t take the chance of them swimming off again so instead we are building a big 1,000sq m enclosure for them”, the owner of the estate said.

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