City dwellers warned about roving kangaroos

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Residents in Australia's national capital were warned Wednesday not to bother starving kangaroos that are bounding through their streets and parks in search of food.
Wildlife authorities said the usually harmless, grass-eating Eastern Gray kangaroos are being driven by hunger from the drought-stricken countryside around Canberra, into the city of 320,000 where the town water supply has kept conditions greener.
The Australian Capital Territory Environment Department warned residents to beware after a woman was attacked by a kangaroo while walking her poodle in a city park last week and another woman reported a kangaroo had drowned her golden retriever in a pond and seriously injured two other dogs in an unprovoked attack.
Government wildlife ecologist Murray Evans said the danger was that city folk forgot that the beloved symbol of Australia was also a wild animal that can grow as tall and heavy as a man.
"Kangaroos don't come bounding out of the bush looking for people to attack," Evans told The Associated Press. "It's usually kangaroos minding their own business and people thinking they're cute and cuddly and getting too close."
Hunger has broken the kangaroos' usual routine of lazing in the shade of trees by day and feeding during the night.