Kangaroos Flee Kharkiv

In the war-wracked Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Feldman Ecopark is tasked with evacuating all of its animals to safety. Among the refugees this week was a group (a mob, a court, a troop) of kangaroos, delivered from the bombed out city by one brave soul in a van.

The unnamed Ukrainian driver posted a brief video of the evacuation showing six or eight marsupials (including a couple wallabies) seated in the back of his van, looking mostly calm, if disoriented, as they bounced along. The same man had posted earlier of his fleeing van filled with monkeys and turtles, some of the latter weighing as much as 220 pounds.

The Ecopark is – or was – home to more than 300 species totaling some 500o animals. The park has been hit hard in the past month. Two staff members were killed while attempting to feed animals in their enclosures, and a number of Park residents – big cats, primates including two orangutans, marsupials, and birds – are also among the fallen. Survivors remain hungry and scared.

“Refugees today are not just millions of our countrymen, women, children, elderly,” the Ecopark’s Facebook account (facebook.com/FeldmanEcopark/) posted. “Refugees are also forced to become animals, whose houses were constantly under the enemy's shelling. They also run away from war, away from explosions, crashes, hunger and cold …”

Getting the animals out of Kharkiv is only the first step in saving them. There’s no one sanctuary for them all, so the animals are being brought to different undisclosed locations, including the home of the Ecopark’s founder. In most cases the missionaries of mercy have to construct temporary enclosures for the animals, wherever they end up. Then there’s the question of feeding them …

Visit the Ecopark website and help out at feldman-ecopark.com/donation.
Photo credit: Facebook screenshot