In this video, the man comes over to a kangaroo who has his dog trapped in its arms. Seeing the man, the kangaroo lets go of the dog and gets ready to spar with its owner. He stands tall, one sign that he is getting ready for a fight. Kangaroos box with each other in the wild. By circling each other, punching, and kicking, the animals show dominance and the winner often gets the best choice of mate and resources. In this case, the man was showing his dominance to rescue his dog. After punching the kangaroo, the man left the fight and went back to the jeep. He had been participating in a hunting expedition to fulfill a dying teenager’s last with when the kangaroo got his dog.
After the Fight
The man in the video, who is a zookeeper working with elephants at the Taronga Western Plains Zoo, faced backlash from the public when the video of his punch went viral. “He just went into action to protect his dog, like most people would,” said the man who shot the video. “These are big tough animals,” he added. “A little smack on the nose isn’t going to hurt him.” One zoologist noted that by throwing a punch, the man actually put himself at more risk. “He should have grabbed his dog and just moved back away from the kangaroo,” he said. “Most likely, the kangaroo would have just remained in place. But he took the chance of engaging the kangaroo. You never want to strike a wild animal because it could agitate the animal.” In the wild, kangaroo boxing matches can last for hours, leave both animals bloody and injured, or even result in the death of the losing kangaroo.
