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They are the cute and cuddly icons of Australia, but kangaroos are viciously attacking people at a popular tourist spot, and an addiction to carrots is to blame.
"There are people getting kicked and scratched at least every day," tourist shuttle bus driver Shane Lewis said.
"One lady got 17 stitches in her face from her eye to her chin."
Every week, thousands of people flock to the unlikely tourist destination of Morisset Hospital in southern Lake Macquarie, where big mobs of kangaroos can always be found on the grassy slopes.
It's less than a two-hour train ride from Sydney and the travel blogs promise "adorable wild kangaroos" that are "tame enough to get close to and take photos with".
But too many tourists are dangling a carrot to get the perfect roo-selfie.
"The kangaroos see at least 2,000 tourists a week and they don't need 2,000 carrots or bananas and bread, chips and biscuits," Mr Lewis said.
"I've even seen some silly people feeding them McDonalds, KFC, corn chips, oats and there are some foods they are very aggressive for."
Mr Lewis has made a business out of shuttling people from the Morisset train station to the kangaroos at the hospital, but wants more done to prevent people feeding them.
He said he did his best to educate people and warn them of the dangers and, over the past eight months, has been collecting photos of injured tourists to help convey the message.
"Once I show them the photos they usually pull their kids away and put their food away when they know what can actually happen," he said.
"There was a guy who got his stomach gashed open and he wasn't even feeding them but … they'd been to McDonalds 10 minutes before, so whether they still had the food smell on them I have no idea, but for some reason the kangaroo took to him."
