IT’S been dubbed the most Aussie video you’ll ever see — a man dressed in a flanno squaring off with a big roo in the rugged Australian bush. <br />Overnight, the footage of zookeeper Greig Tonkins went viral after the kangaroo put his hunting dog Max in a vicious headlock. <br />Since being posted to Facebook, the footage — which was filmed by Greg Bloom — has been viewed more than a million times. <br />But while the world has been caught up in the #Straya of the toe-to-toe, there’s much more to the story than meets the eye. <br />“This hunting trip was put together for a sick young man called Kailem who passed away from cancer last week,” said Mathew Amor, who organised the hunting trip in June when the incident occurred. <br />Mr Amor told news.com.au he decided to organise a small group of friends, including Kailem and Greig Tonkins, to go on the boar hunting trip at his property in Condobolin, New South Wales, after hearing about Kailem’s deteriorating condition. <br />“Basically Kailem wanted to catch a boar,” Mr Amor said. <br />“And so a few of us got together to take him out, and another mate filmed more than an hour of video to put together as a DVD for Kailem and his family of the trip.” <br />The DVD included the minute of footage that has since gone viral. <br />Mr Amor said it was totally out of character for his friend, Mr Tonkins, to hit the marsupial, describing him as a “placid bloke”. <br />“My mate has a good government job, so he’s gone pretty quiet on this,” Mr Amor laughed. <br />“We were driving along, the dogs are loose. They are trained to smell pig’s blood, and picked up a scent. <br />“The dogs went past 20 kangaroos, which they are trained not to touch. <br />“Anyway, this big buck got a hold of my friend’s dog. It just grabbed him.” <br />It’s been confirmed that Mr Tonkins is a zookeeper at Taronga’s Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo. <br />“Taronga Western Plains Zoo can confirm that Greig Tonkins is an employee at Taronga Western Plains Zoo,” a spokesperson for the zoo said in a statement. <br />“Good animal welfare and the protection of Australian wildlife are of the utmost importance to Taronga. <br />“We are working with Mr Tonkins to understand the exact circumstances of the event and will consider any appropriate action.” <br />Mr Amor said while he hadn’t seen anything like it before, a few older hunter’s had witnessed kangaroos behave in a similar way out in the wild before. <br />“He [hunter] went in to save the dog but when the roo turned towards him, he stood his ground as well until all the dogs were safe,” Mr Amor said. <br />“The dog Max was fine, just startled because the kangaroo had a hold of him.” <br />Mr Amor said the dog got away unscathed thanks to a chest plate, which usually protects them from boar tusks. <br />But as for the kangaroo? <br />“My mate only stunned it,” Mr Amor said. <br />“His hand was OK, he didn’t hit it very hard at all. <br />“It was funny because the guy who did it is the most placid bloke. We laughed at him for chucking such a sh*t punch.”
