A man died after a kangaroo attacked him and then prevented paramedics from getting near to help the victim who was found by a family member. The police were called in after the wild pet kangaroo became violent.
The kangaroo wouldn't let the first responders reach the man. As such, the police had to shoot down the aggressive marsupial.
A spokesperson for the Western Australian Police Force said the man had been attacked by the kangaroo earlier in the day. The police revealed that the kangaroo was posing an ongoing threat to emergency respondents, and attending officers were required to euthanize the kangaroo by firearm. The incident occurred at the property in Redmond, a sparsely populated area about 20 km northwest of Albany, in Western Australia.
The man died at the scene from the injuries. It's believed the kangaroo was a wild animal that was being kept by the man as a pet.
This is Australia's first reported fatal kangaroo attack since 1936 when William Cruickshank died after his jaw was broken and he suffered extensive head injuries. Kangaroos are known to attack by using their forelimbs to grapple, and by kicking out with their hind legs. It should be noted that attacks by kangaroo are rare, and deaths are even rarer.
Frank Mills, manager at Southern Wildlife Operations at Queensland's Department of Environment and Science, said when a kangaroo attacks a human, it's usually a territorial male or part of a male's mating display.
There were reports of a 67-year-old woman attacked by a mother kangaroo in Maaroom in late July. The attack left her with a broken femur, lots of scratches, and bite marks. Maaroom is infested with mother kangaroos. Mills outlined that the marsupials were moving between nearby bushland and into the residential area. They counted around 80 kangaroos within the town itself. The expert said local forests that surround the town wouldn't support that many kangaroos.
