GettyA teenager was knocked out and left with a shattered jaw after being headbutted by a kangaroo while he was out hunting.
Joshua Hayden was out hunting with his brother on Tuesday night (February 13) in Western Australia when he was attacked by the marsupial.
The 19-year-old said they spotted three kangaroos, before one ‘disappeared from view’.
According to ABC News, Joshua apparently leaned out of the window and prepared to take a shot at the two kangaroos.
As he did so, the kangaroo which had previously disappeared from view, reappeared and charged at the brothers’ moving car.
He said:
It actually collided with the side of the car and smashed the front window. Then it bounced back onto me and headbutted me straight in the jaw.
Now, I don’t want to sound harsh on Joshua, a shattered jaw is not a good thing – but.. karma?
PixabayJoshua said he was unconscious for about 30 seconds before he came to, adding:
I woke up and my brother was trying to tell me what happened.
Joshua’s brother drove them both to Kellerberrin Memorial Hospital, where he was taken straight to the Northam Emergency Department.
From there he was referred to Royal Perth Hospital, where he was told he’d have to wait 10 days to have surgery because his face was ‘too swollen to operate’.
Kangaroos are f*cking terrifying! ??via ViralHog
Posted by UNILAD on Tuesday, 28 March 2017
Joshua and his brother said they regularly hunt kangaroos for food, but ‘normally they did not fight back’.
He said:
Out of all the times we have been out [in the] bush I have never heard of this before.
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Kangaroos are absolutely not to be messed with, they can be super strong.
With this in mind, you may or may not have heard the story of Greig Tonkins; the man who punched a kangaroo in the face to save his dog from the animal’s stranglehold.
It was a couple of years ago now, but the quintessentially Australian tale went viral and the world weighed in on Tonkins’ mission to save Max the dog, with many dubbing it animal abuse.
Yet while many of us have tried to explain Tonkins’ actions, now, we’ve heard from wildlife experts who can reveal the reasoning behind the kangaroo’s behaviour.
PixabayAccording to The Telegraph, Dr Mark Eldrige, a kangaroo expert from the Australian Museum, said:
This was a really interesting scenario. When kangaroos fight they do tend to wrestle and kick, but they would normally view dogs and dingoes as predators and flee from them.
But in this case, maybe the dog surprised the roo and got too close. And in turn, the kangaroo defended itself instead of running away and did so by getting the dog in a headlock.
The kangaroo didn’t seem to be biting the dog, I think he was pretty confused. Maybe the kangaroo was just having a hold of the dog and didn’t know what to do next, because normally it would use his legs to kick in a fight.
ViralHogDetailing the behavioural habits of kangaroos, Dr Eldridge said: ‘Male kangaroos will try to scratch and wrestle before sometimes putting an opponent in a headlock. It’s a tactic when bucks fight.’
The kangaroo’s strength would usually be enough to seriously injure the dog but, thankfully, Max was wearing armour that may have protected his neck from the full force of the kangaroo’s upper body.
Eldridge added Tonkins was also incredibly lucky to escape the incident unscathed – in a further unusual turn of events, the kangaroo chose to flee the scene rather than respond with an attack on Tonkins.
Wouldn’t mess with a roo.
