Oh, Australia - there's nothing quite like you, is there?
The continent is home to some of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet and sits next to the immensely gorgeous Great Barrier Reef. Despite its long history of being an island prison, Australia is now one of the largest tourist destinations in the world. It even has some of the cutest animals on Earth living there, like koala bears and the platypus.
It's also one of the harshest places to live in, as Australia not only features blistering heat and seemingly endless stretches of desert, but it also houses some of the absolute deadliest creatures on the entire planet. Saltwater crocodiles, giant box jellyfish, a plethora of different venomous spiders: Australia pretty much has it all, but even animals that are thought of as cute and fluffy are usually just waiting for people to let their guard down.
Case in point: the kangaroo. Children are taught that this marsupial is big and fluffy and carries their young in a pouch, but the incredibly vicious boxing matches are typically left out of the lesson. Don't believe they can be deadly? Just watch these two 'roos engaging in a vicious street fight:
Now, the music in the video does calm things down a bit, but a fight with a kangaroo is nothing to scoff at. Full-grown kangaroos can jump up to 25 feet in a single bound, and that obviously requires a ridiculous amount of muscle strength to do so. Now imagine that all of the muscle power is dedicated to hitting something in the chest, and the story goes from interesting to horrifying rather quickly.
On top of that, kangaroo paws feature a claw that is essentially nature's Bowie knife, meaning that if the marsupial can hold onto something for long enough with its tiny front arms, the animal can literally disembowel its opponent.
Typically, kangaroos will fight for dominance, whether it be for territory or mating partners. Thankfully, there have been no reported human deaths by kangaroo since the 1930s, though that doesn't mean the threat of a kangaroo is any less dangerous today. When three kangaroos escaped from a German zoo in 2012, an entire police posse was dispatched to keep the animals in check.
So, it makes a whole lot of sense that someone trying to get in their car and go to work would hesitate if two kangaroos were boxing in their driveway.
Photo: Scott Calleja (cropped)
