‘Shocked’: Disbelief as native Aussie animal spotted in the UK

Astonishing footage has revealed a native Australian animal is living in the wild overseas, leaving many asking “what happened?”.

Australians have been left dumbfounded after a bird spotter’s footage went viral, revealing there are kookaburras living in the UK.

James Cook, a “wildlife content creator” with a passion for finding “animals where they shouldn’t be”, shared a clip of not one, but two, of the native Australian birds sitting in a tree in Scotland.

But his discovery as left Aussie reeling, with many stating they were “shocked” to learn the iconic bird was living wildly across the pond, with many asking how the feathered creature got there.

“There’s probably less than 10 of these in the entirety of UK because they shouldn’t be here,” Mr Cook, who posts under the handle @wildlifewithcookie, states in his viral video.

“Oh my word, look in this tree.”

The video then zooms to show a “laughing kookaburra” perched on a branch of a bare tree in a green field.

“It’s a kookaburra, oh my days,” the visibly excited animal lover continued.

“I’ve spent three days searching for this, and I’ve found it, that is amazing.

“Look at where I am, I’m in Scotland in the UK, and there is a kookaburra.”

James Cook shared the unbelievable Aussie find he made in the UK. Picture: TikTok/wildlifewithcookie

The animal lover spent three days hunting down two kookaburras living in the wild in Scotland. Picture: TikTok/wildlifewithcookie

Remarkably, Mr Cook then locates a second one, sitting on the branch of another bare tree slightly further in the distance.

“The Laughing Kookaburra is native to Eastern Australia, but these giant kingfishers have found themselves wild in the UK by escaping captivity,” he wrote on Instagram.

“Right now it’s thought that there may be less than 10 living wild right here in the UK.”

The video, shared on both TikTok and Instagram, has amassed over half a million views in less than 24 hours and earned thousands of comments.

After the clip went viral, Aussies were left in disbelief, many wanting to know how the native bird got to the UK. Picture: TikTok/wildlifewithcookie

Many messages left were from Australians who were in sheer disbelief over the sighting, who stated they were “not expecting to see our laughing buddies in Scotland”.

“Never have I ever thought Kookaburras would be anywhere else in the world but Australia. I’m actually shocked as an Aussie,” one wrote.

“Happy there are two of them, had me all worried about a lonely Kookaburra for a minute there,” another responded.

As one joked: “Gorgeous! Bet it’s gutted it’s in Scotland not Australia though.”

Others wanted to know exactly how the birds had got so far from home.

“That’s very cool, but how did they get there?” one asked.

As someone else pushed: “It feels weird to see a kookaburra in the wild so far from its home. What happened?”

A report in 2013 revealed the animals had escaped a now closed down wildlife centre. Picture: TikTok/wildlifewithcookie

Mr Cook is a 'wildlife content creator'. Picture: Instagram/wildlifewithcookie

A kookaburra “escaped” from a now closed down wildlife park in Kirkcudbright back in 2013, according to a local newspaper report at the time.

Residents at the time described the escaped bird’s distinct chirping as “a unique experience to hear that call in this part of the world”.

Remarkably, the sighting in Scotland isn’t the only recent wild kookaburra report recently, with the BBC stating last month one had been spotted in Suffolk, about an hour north east of London.

A spokesman for Suffolk Wildlife Trust told the outlet it was first spotted about nine years ago, and “seems to have made itself quite at home in Suffolk”.

“It would be an escapee, however it’s not known from where the bird escaped,” the spokesperson said.

“Kookaburra can live more than 20 years, so it could be around for many years to come.”