Was it the heavy surf or the unexpectedly salty water? For a kangaroo in Melbourne, Australia, at least, the bathroom ended with a police bailout. The officers were called to Safety Beach because a wild animal in the water was fighting drowning, Victoria police said Sunday.
The animal had already landed back when the police arrived on the beach. It was located on the sand, covered by a beach visitor with a blanket. As the police approached the kangaroo, however, it apparently jumped back into the waves. "It started swimming, but got into trouble due to waves and surf and dived several times," the police said.
"Good mood" at the kangaroo
Two officers jumped into the water and brought the now unconscious animal ashore. There it was revived successfully by means of a cardiac massage. The kangaroo was then taken to the police station. Policemen said it was "good mood" and lucky enough to be alive given the amount of inhaled salt water.
The fact that kangaroos are able to swim is hardly known and rather rare. Even more unusual is the behavior of a roughly 1.80-meter kangaroo male, who injured three people two weeks ago, one of them seriously. Only when a helper pulled a shovel over the animal's head would it have hopped back into the bush. Even as a pet, a kangaroo is only partially suitable, as the case of a family in Lower Saxony shows.
In Australia, there are more than 46 million kangaroos, according to a government poll last year. Environmentalists warn, however, that the numbers are due to a long period of drought in the east of the country.