A video of a pack of dogs warily attempting to attack a large eastern grey kangaroo has reignited a claims that kangaroos lead dogs to water to drown them.
Disturbing footage captured a kangaroo standing in a creek as four dogs barked at it from the shore.
Suddenly, a black dog dashed forward and lunged at the kangaroo, only to be knocked away. The other dogs then charged toward the kangaroo, but none attempted to bite it.
After forcing the kangaroo to the other side of the small creek, the dogs backed off and returned to their owner – who stood filming nearby.
Some viewers expressed concern, with one claiming ‘kangaroos lead dogs to water to drown them’.
This theory was quickly challenged by a kangaroo expert, who said the marsupials never initiate such confrontations, and only fight back in self defence.
‘Kangaroos don’t lure dogs into danger, they retreat into water as a last resort to defend themselves from attack. They fight back only in self defence, and that’s clear in the video,’ Alyssa Wormald, from the Victorian Kangaroo Association told Yahoo News.
A kangaroo (pictured) fought off a pack of dogs but an expert warned the stress alone from the attack could have killed it
Ms Wormald condemned the owner of the dogs in the video for not keeping the pets away from the kangaroo.
She said one dog bite could be enough to kill the native animal.
‘It’s so upsetting to see this magnificent kangaroo retreating in terror in the water. The saddest part is that if he sustained just one bite he will likely die slowly from infection,’ she said.
‘If that doesn’t kill him, chances are he will die from stress myopathy. Male kangaroos look big and tough but they are like all kangaroos, fragile and easily stressed.’
Many others also called out the owner of the dogs.
‘Seriously why would you let your dogs near [a] poor kangaroo,’ one person wrote. ‘Control your dogs, luckily it was a kangaroo and not a child,’ another said.
The kangaroo appeared shaken by the incident but was not injured.
