‘Very naughty’ intruder almost ruins kids’ Easter egg hunt
The Easter Bunny’s best laid plans were thrown into chaos on Sunday morning in the most Australian way possible.
Loud banging woke Amanda Sparkles and her two daughters, Laura, 11, and Bella, 15, at around six in the morning, interrupting any plans of a sleep-in.
At first they believed it was the Easter bunny placing eggs around their 30-acre yard in Clarence Point, Tasmania.
Sharing her experience to social media, Ms Sparkles said she was “shocked” to instead see a Bennett’s wallaby stealing her Easter eggs.
“The very naughty boy had been on the deck, caravan, swing set, spa bath, collecting and hiding all the eggs he could find,” she wrote on Facebook.
If the wallaby thought he was going to get away with the eggs, he was sorely mistaken.
Wallaby a much-loved familiar face
Ms Sparkles revealed to Yahoo News Australia that the wallaby’s name is Polly and she, as a registered wildlife rehabilitator, had raised him.
Brought into care as a 1.5kg infant after his mother was killed by a car on Bruny Island, Polly is now a 20kg adult and freely roams around Ms Sparkles’ farm.
She said he was severely traumatised when he first came into care, and bonded closely with her daughter Laura, before being released in November.
"I think the reason Polly hasn't left the property yet is because of his loving bond with Laura," she said.
"He follows Laura around, watching out for her.
"He even encouraged Laura to follow him once on dusk and introduced Laura to his mob of females on the property. It was very special."
Easter egg hunt saved by crafty wallaby
Knowing the wallaby well, Ms Sparkles was able to use a piece of his favourite vegetable to negotiate one of the eggs from his grasp.
Because chocolate is bad for wallabies and kangaroos, she said it was “luckily he didn't eat any any of the eggs”.
Once Polly had relinquished his Easter egg, Ms Sparkles and her daughters realised they had another problem - all of the other Easter eggs were missing.
“We then started looking around to see if there were any more,” she said.
“We couldn't really see many at all, but Polly kept on going in and out of the bushes.
“We realised he’d gathered up eggs and put them all into the shrubs.”
Although they were initially concerned the Easter bunny’s hunt had been ruined, they ended up having just as much fun searching for where Polly had hidden the eggs.
“He was quite proud of himself,” Ms Sparkles added.
