Warning over killer kangaroos

Wednesday, July 7, 2004 Posted: 4:49 AM EDT (0849 GMT)
   
Kangaroos could pose a threat to people and dogs, an ecologist warns.

CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) -- Australians living in the nation's
drought-ravaged capital have been warned to keep their distance from
aggressive kangaroos after the iconic marsupials attacked one woman and
killed a pet dog.

Eastern Grey kangaroos, which can grow 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) tall and
weigh 70 kg (154 lb), have started moving out of the parched bush into
inner Canberra suburbs during the day to look for grass and water,
increasing their contact with people.

A senior wildlife ecologist with Environment ACT, Murray Evans, said on
Wednesday the kangaroos could pose a threat to people and dogs, with one
woman savaged by a large kangaroo as she was walking her small, pet dog
in a paddock last week.

"Her dog went near the kangaroo and she followed and before she knew it
the kangaroo lashed out, scratching her down the side of her body,"
Evans told Reuters.

Another woman told how a kangaroo drowned one of the four dogs she was
walking with a friend, attacking it in a pond and holding it under the
water with its hind legs while it hit out at one of the other dogs with
its front legs.

"My friend started shouting: 'There's a kangaroo in the pond. It's got
Summer'. It was surreal, like your worst nightmare," Christine Canham
told the Canberra Times newspaper.

"She was screaming and screaming. The kangaroo just stared back at us. I
will never forget that."

Evans said it was not unusual for kangaroos to flee into water if they
felt under threat and, as a last defence, they would try to drown their
predator with their powerful hind legs.

He said most of the behavioral change in the usually placid animals was
due to the scarcity of feed after a run of dry years in Canberra, the
inland bush capital, as Australia battles its worst drought in a century.

Kangaroos usually shelter by day and emerge at dusk to feed during the
night but the reduction in available grass meant they were now traveling
by day in search of food, dramatically increasing the number of
encounters with people -- and dogs.

"Kangaroos and dogs just do not mix. Kangaroos see dogs as a threat and
get spooked by them," Evans said.

"The main message people should remember is that kangaroos may look
cuddly and furry but they are wild animals and people should keep their
distance and keep dogs on leads around them."