A mum has told of her shock after opening her curtains to see a wild wallaby hopping about outside.

The animal - which is native to Australia and New Guinea - wandered onto the Millfields Place housing estate in Bethersden, near Ashford.

Lucy Austin was getting her five-year-old son ready for school when she looked out of the window and saw the two-and-a-half foot wallaby standing by trees.

"I couldn't believe it," she said. "I opened the curtains and just by the grassy area there it was."

The mum-of-two says her son Josh was amazed by the wallaby, which is a smaller member of the kangaroo family.

"He was very surprised," she said. "It didn't mind us being there. He looked really healthy and was going around looking for seeds that had fallen from the trees, then reaching up to the branches.

"He was hopping around and then laying around and enjoying the sun."

Although rare in the wild in the UK, there are about 100 wallabies living on the Isle of Man and further populations in the Peak District, Devon and East Sussex.