EXOTIC wildlife researcher Chris Mullins is bounding down to south Bucks to investigate a boom in wallaby and kangaroo sightings.

The 53-year-old from Loughborough has tracked more than 300 species around the UK including primates in Norfolk, a crocodile in Staffordshire and wild boar in Sussex.

But now the enthusiast of all that is non-native hopes to survey the mysterious marsupials in a bid to monitor numbers and trace colonies.

He told the Star: "From the sightings I may be able to draw up a plan. Reports of sightings are on the increase, but I need help.

"Wallabies are not a very easy animal to track. They don't leave signs like wild boar. They're extremely elusive. But the plan is to establish trends and possible locations, and ideally track their movements."

Chris is urging Star readers who make "a visual" to contact his research group Beastwatch UK, which he set up four years ago.

He added: "I guess it's my passion. It's the shock factor of seeing something exotic. It's kept me going through cancer and a marital breakdown."

In the past two years there were reportedly more than 100 kangaroo and wallaby sightings in the Home Counties.

More recently Star readers have reported seeing wallabies in Stokenchurch, Frieth, and Cadmore Common. Even screen and stage star Colin Baker came face to face with our Australian visitors.

He said: "It must have been a couple of years ago now. Our milkman had seen one and I had been taking the mickey out of him for weeks.

"Then, hey presto, I was driving down Bolter End Lane and I saw what was definitely a wallaby sitting on the roadside. It just jumped into the woods. That's what wallabies do. They don't sit on the roadside blowing the bagpipes."

Animal experts believe the rise in sightings could be attributed to the animals escaping from zoos and wildlife parks but the nearest to south Bucks is Whipsnade, in Bedfordshire.

A zoo spokesman said: "We have a lot of inquiries about wallabies and kangaroos. We have secure fencing and all our animals are accounted for. They are counted on a daily basis."

If you spot a wallaby then email Chris Mullins at info@beastwatch.co.uk