A surfer has been caught on camera dramatically rescuing a kamakazi kangaroo that plunged into the waves and was swept out to sea.
Neil McCallum, 48, was on a morning walk with his son, Jazz, 15, along Kirra Beach on the Gold Coast of Australia when the rogue roo bounded across his path, hopped into the surf and started swimming out to sea.
The pair watched in concern as two hammerhead sharks had been in the same spot in recent days and the young marsupial was soon caught up in a riptide.
'A guy came up and said: "Gee your dog's a long way out",' Mr McCallum said yesterday.
'I said: "That's not a dog, that's a kangaroo".'
So Mr McCallum, a professional circuit speaker, dashed home, grabbed his long surfboard and returned to the rescue.
'It was very frightened by the time I got to it. I grabbed it on the back and it sort of shook me off like a wild animal.
'So I tried to wrestle him on to my surfboard and he found it difficult to stay on board.'
Eventually he herded the kangaroo on to a sand bank where it recovered before bounding away.
It is a little known fact that kangaroos can and do swim, according to the charity Kangaroo Protection Coalition.
However, they can be just as susceptible to dangerous riptides and strong currents as humans with some conservationists reporting having to rescue injured kangaroos from rivers.
Some kangaroo experts credit the creatures with enough intelligence to use he sea's salt waters to help heal infected cuts and sores.
The busy built-up area of Kirra Beach, located about 20km from Surfers Paradise, is not exactly typical kangaroo country and Mr McCallum said he'd never seen one in the area before.
His wife, Amanda, caught the incident on the family video camera.
Now here's the video:
A nice story even without encountering freaque waves!
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