A man who may have been keeping a wild kangaroo as a pet was killed by the animal in southwest Australia, police said yesterday, in what was reportedly the first fatal attack by a kangaroo in the country since 1936.
A relative found the 77-year-old man with “serious injuries” on his property on Sunday in Redmond, about 400km southeast of the Western Australia state capital, Perth.
It was believed he had been attacked earlier in the day by the kangaroo, which police shot dead because it was preventing paramedics from reaching the injured man, police said in a statement.
Photo: AP
“The kangaroo was posing an ongoing threat to emergency responders,” it said.
The man died at the scene. Police are preparing a report for a coroner who would record an official cause to death.
Police said the victim had been keeping the wild kangaroo as a pet.
There are legal restrictions on keeping Australian native fauna as pets, but the police media office yesterday said they had no information to make public regarding whether the victim had a permit.
Tanya Irwin, who cares for macropods at the Native Animal Rescue service in Perth, said authorities rarely issue permits to keep kangaroos in Western Australia.
“This looks like it was an adult male and they become quite aggressive and they don’t do well in captivity,” Irwin said.
“We don’t know what the situation was; if he was in pain or why he was being kept in captivity and unfortunately ... they’re not a cute animal, they’re a wild animal,” Irwin added.
Irwin said her rescue center always rehabilitates native animals with the aim of returning them to the wild, particularly kangaroos.
“You do need a special permit to be able to do that. I don’t believe they really give them out very often unless you’re a wildlife center with trained people who know what they’re doing,” she said.
Western gray kangaroos are common in Australia’s southwest. They can weigh up to 54kg and stand 1.3m tall.
The males can be aggressive and fight people with the same techniques they use with each other.
They use their short upper limbs to grapple with their opponent, use their muscular tails to take their body weight, and lash out with both their powerful clawed hind legs.
In 1936, William Cruickshank, 38, died in a hospital in Hillston in New South Wales on the east coast months after he had been attacked by a kangaroo.
Cruickshank had extensive head injuries including a broken jaw as he attempted to rescue his two dogs from a large kangaroo, the Sydney Morning Herald reported at the time.
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