Kangaroo ‘tries to drown’ man in Australia floodwaters

[ad_1] A "actually muscly" kangaroo "tried to drown" a person in Australia, after the 2 acquired right into a punch-up.

Don James is claimed to have discovered himself combating for his life because the marsupial held him down in floodwaters which had pooled on the facet of the street close to Port Macquarie - solely escaping after the animal appeared to develop into spooked.

Kristy Lees, who watched the battle unfold in her rear-view mirror, informed the BBC: "It is not day by day a giant, male kangaroo decides to take you on... Even in Australia, you don't count on to see it."

She suspects the "very distressed" kangaroo had develop into trapped within the space following the file flooding that hit New South Wales this week, leaving 5 folks useless.

Ms Lees was first alerted to the kangaroo's presence as she drove all the way down to examine the water ranges in Port Macquarie's North Shore along with her husband, at about 09:00 native time on Friday (23:00 GMT on Thursday).

Two males - one in every of whom was later recognized as Don James by Australian information community ABC - warned them that there was a "actually massive" kangaroo simply across the subsequent parked automobile.

And positive sufficient, there was the kangaroo - "as massive because the automobile" it was standing subsequent to.

The subsequent factor Ms Lees knew, the kangaroo had launched in direction of her automobile, which she had slowed to a crawl in order to not startle the animal, and began to assault it.

However as he moved spherical to her facet of the automobile, the kangaroo appeared to identify one other goal: Mr James, who was nonetheless strolling away up the street.

The kangaroo gave chase.

"They actually acquired right into a boxing match," Kristy mentioned. "I am wanting within the rear-view mirror and they're throwing punches."

Mr James then ran backwards earlier than tripping and falling right into a patch of floodwater by the facet of the street.

The subsequent factor Kristy knew, the "kangaroo was holding him down".

"The kangaroo tried to drown the person," she mentioned. "I realised what was taking place and informed my husband [who couldn't see the fight from his seat] to get out the automobile and assist."

However then the kangaroo seems to have been spooked - maybe by the approaching automobile pushed by Mr James's buddy - permitting him to flee down in direction of Ms Lees, who has since tried to warn as many neighbours as doable.

"The kangaroo was attempting to drown me," he informed Ms Lees, who was capable of say she had seen all of it.

"I simply bear in mind being beneath water and kicking and screaming and carrying on," Mr James later informed ABC.

It was, he mentioned, "fairly traumatic for some time there".

Kangaroos have been identified to look to aim to drown their foes - though these are normally animals the dimensions of canine.

Kangaroo ecologist Graeme Coulson, from the College of Melbourne, revealed to ABC that his neighbour had misplaced two canine that manner.

"There is a very robust intuition - kangaroos will go to water in the event that they're threatened by a predator," he informed the information community.

Nevertheless, he mentioned, the behaviour is probably going extra about defending themselves than drowning their foe.

That's unlikely to make Mr James really feel any higher about Friday morning's altercation - particularly as he informed Ms Lees that simply 12 months in the past he had fended off one other assault, that point by an excellent white shark.