Queenslander Evan Switzer has captured heartbreaking images of what he believed were kangaroos mourning in the wild.
Mr Switzer came across a scene of three kangaroos, a male buck embracing a dead female, with a joey looking on.
To Switzer, it appeared the trio were "one little family".
Mr Switzer, who has lived in River Heads for over 10 years, told SBS he sees kangaroos and joeys quite often where he lives but what he saw on Monday was "quite special to see".
(Supplied: Evan Switzer) Source: Supplied
"I've never seen anything like it before," he said.
He went home to get his camera before returning to the scene to take photographs.
"I was walking my dog through a neighbour's 40 acres when I saw them," he said.
Mr Switzer noticed the buck making distress noises and shooing away other kangaroos from the scene.
The buck appeared to be "picking up the female" with persistence.
"You can understand the loss," Mr Switzer said, likening his emotions to what he felt when he put down his old pet dog years ago.
"I've never seen a kangaroo mourn for a mate," he said.
(Supplied: Evan Switzer) Source: Supplied
However academics claim the reason Mr Switzer has never witnessed a kangaroo mourn for its mate is because the kangaroo he saw was in fact not mourning, but doing something far more primal.
Australian Museum's Principal Research Scientist, Dr Mark Eldridge, said the buck who appeared to be "cradling the head" of the female, was actually in a state of sexual arousal.
"The male is clearly highly stressed and agitated, his forearms are very wet from him licking himself to cool down," he said.
"He is also sexually aroused - the evidence is here sticking out from behind the scrotum.
"This is a male trying to get a female to stand up so he can mate with her," Dr Eldridge said to Australian Museum's blog.
Mr Switzer may have even confirmed Dr. Eldridge's theory when he shared with SBS how he often sees male kangaroos about in heat.
(Supplied: Evan Switzer) Source: Supplied
"I've seen a bunch of males charge after a female like a congo line," he said.
Mr Switzer also mentioned when the buck moved away from the female's body, he was able to get a better look at her and the condition she was in.
"She felt warm and her pouch was empty, there was nothing in there," he said.
The heat of her body is indicative of a recent death but may have been misleading for the buck.
"If the female was in oestrus (a period of sexual receptivity) the male may have been chasing her and she collapsed."
If the female was in oestrus and died, the hormones would still be present and so the male finding her freshly dead would still be attracted and sexually aroused not realising she was dead," Dr Elderidge told SBS.
Once hearing about Dr. Elderidge's theory, Mr Switzer responded with a "sounds good to me" - saying he would "believe an expert's opinion" over his own.
"That's what could have been happening at the time, sounds very interesting," he said.
(Supplied: Evan Switzer) Source: Supplied
