American tourist pushing away 'frisky' kangaroo in hilarious video has people in splits

When you visit a zoo or a wildlife sanctuary, the most you can experience is watching the animals and interacting with them under the staff's supervision. But one man had the ultimate experience of boxing with a kangaroo. Thankfully nobody sustained any injury except for people whose stomachs were hurting after laughing at the site. While on vacation in Australia, an American tourist had the once-in-a-lifetime experience of fighting a kangaroo. On June 11, a man was seen shielding a woman from a small kangaroo trailing behind her at an enclosure in Perth, Western Australia, in a TikTok video posted by @brooke.so.hip. The hilarious video has garnered over 20.1m views and 1.7m likes.

"My dad was just trying to make sure that kangaroo stopped getting frisky with that lady," @brooke.so.hip captioned the video. It appeared to be a smaller western grey following a woman and child at Cohunu Koala Park in Western Australia. In the video clip, the kangaroo was standing up and swinging its arms at the man. The man then held the animal back with one hand. The kangaroo didn't seem to give up and continued to get handsy with the man while the man defended himself. The man was later seen lightly kicking the kangaroo away as it chased him and another man who appeared to be much younger. On several occasions, the two men were seen walking away from the fight, but it appeared the kangaroo only wanted more.

At one point, both men grabbed one of the kangaroo's front paws, causing it to rear up onto its muscular tail and kick them in a spectacular display. At the end of the video, a woman who appeared to be a staff member at the park approached and scolded the kangaroo, pointing a stern finger at it. Surprisingly, the kangaroo calmed down and gave up the fight. This boxing ring didn't fail to entertain viewers on TikTok. "Not the double kick as they held his paws as if they were helping him," wrote @makayla_amelia. "The way he just stopped when he was called a naughty boy," commented @chantelgalwey. "The birds were egging the kangaroo on saying 'fight, fight, fight,'" observed @rhiannon_7_. 

Kangaroo attacks are extremely rare, but it does happen. According to the Associated Press, a fatal kangaroo attack near Perth was the first in Australia since 1936. In southwest Australia, a man who may have been keeping a wild kangaroo as a pet was killed by the animal. A relative discovered the 77-year-old man with "serious injuries" on his property. He was believed to have been attacked earlier in the day by the kangaroo, which police shot dead because it was preventing paramedics from reaching the injured man, according to police. The victim was believed to have kept the wild kangaroo as a pet. 

Tanya Irwin, who works with macropods at the Native Animal Rescue service in Perth, says authorities in Western Australia rarely issue permits to keep kangaroos. Western gray kangaroos are common in the southwest of Australia. They can reach 1.3 meters (4 feet 3 inches) in height and weigh up to 54 kilograms (119 pounds). Males can be aggressive and fight others using the same techniques to fight each other. They grapple with their opponent using their short upper limbs, then use their muscular tails to take their body weight and lash out with their powerful clawed hind legs.