Tales from the Zoo, Part Four

Kangaroos (and certain other animals) will literally run themselves to death trying to escape a predator. They can die of stroke, heart failure or injure themselves fatally by hitting a wall. The dogs had apparently zeroed in on a joey who, being younger, couldn't keep up. They caught it and tore into it. The mother, trying to defend her baby, was also attacked and killed. They were found right next to each other.

Once we figured this out, we were totally pissed off. We called in extra security and posted them round the clock. We put one man on top of the Antelope House to act as a sentry as the others patrolled the grounds the next night. The man on the roof was to walk back and forth and radio in when he spotted anything suspicious. He wasn't armed since he was so high up, but the armed guards were in golf carts and they could be there within a minute.

That night everyone took there posts. The roos were still outside since they were all still frightened. We really didn't like this fact, but realized that it may serve as bait for these wild dogs.

It did.

About 2:00am, the dogs approached the opposite end of the Antelope House. The sentry heard a commotion and ran the length of the roof to check it out. When he got there, all he could see was some movement in the Springbok yard, but no sign on panic. There were small street lights on the public walkways, but all the yards were basically dark. Fortunately, most of the animals that were out that night had some sort of white markings, so movement was easy to spot.

Suddenly, the sentry heard the sound of dogs coming from the kangaroo end of the House. He took off running. When he got to the roo side, he could hear dogs, but they weren't really barking. He said it was more like a low growling. Then he saw the unbelievable. One by one, 7 boomers went bounding, not only up over their 8 foot wall, but over the public walkway and down into the female's yard. Within 10 seconds, they had gone from one yard to another. He got on the radio and screamed for help. He just knew that there was going to be a kangaroo massacre.