A woman has praised her dog for saving her life during a vicious kangaroo attack.
Pam Baldwin, 71, was walking her rottweiler, Bundy, at Albury Wodonga on the NSW-Victoria border when the incident happened.
The attack left her with bruises to her stomach and a deep gash on her arm.
She had been heading to a friend’s house at the time, along Nail Can Hill, when she sensed something behind her.
She turned to see a large kangaroo.
“It was a traumatic experience,” she told Channel 9’s Today.
“I just had the feeling someone was behind me, and I’ve turned around and you wouldn’t want to know what I said. And I’ve just looked up at these eyes and this nose and the next minute he’s just gone bang with his two back legs.
“I gave him a few choice words.”
Pam said that while people underestimate rottweilers, Bundy is the fifth rottweiler she’s had, and she praised his actions.
“I wouldn’t have another dog; he almost lost his life for me.
“He was within 20 to 40 seconds of being drowned because the kangaroos lead them into a dam if there’s one around.”
She said in the end her friends managed to scare off the roo with some long poles.
She believes kangaroos are becoming more problematic around her area, however she has found it difficult to get help.
“I went to the council and reported it. They didn’t want to know me,” she said.
“People take their children, ladies push their babies in a pram. What if it was one of them?”
She said people don’t realise how dangerous kangaroos can be.
“They are deadly,” she said.
Last month, a kangaroo killed a man in West Australia’s south, in the country’s first fatal kangaroo attack in more than 85 years.
It is believed the 77-year-old was attacked by the marsupial at his Redmond property, near Albany. Emergency services were called to the scene, but the kangaroo prevented paramedics from accessing the property.
Australian Reptile Park life science manager Hayley Shute said it was important to show respect around wild animals and remember how dangerous male kangaroos could be.
“The public sort of see kangaroos and koalas as fluffy, cuddly animals. I think it’s just important to note that they are wild animals and there’s a level of respect you have to give them,” she told NCA NewsWire.
“The icon, that picture of an Australian kangaroo, is usually a female kangaroo with a joey sticking his head out of the pouch and they look so cute and sweet.
“But male kangaroos, part of their life and hierarchy within the mob is to take on the male that’s bigger than it. There’s a struggle there to become the alpha male and that’s part of a male kangaroo’s life and behavior.
“At any point, these males are going to take on a threat to it and it’s a behavioral instinct for them.”
Ms Shute said she was not surprised that a male kangaroo could kill a man given their nature, size and strength.
“I don’t have the details of this specific case so I wouldn’t like to speculate, but it’s definitely not surprising that a male kangaroo could cause injuries such as this because they are so strong,” she said.