A kangaroo cornered in a Melbourne Airport chemist has been wrangled into a bag by rescuers.
The distressed animal was injured on an arterial road before it made its way into the airport.
Dubbed Cyrus, it was injured by a vehicle near Terminal Drive and Centre Road, Tullamarine, at about 8am on Tuesday morning.
The kangaroo then made its way to level two of the airport, although airport spokeswoman Anna Gillett said it was not clear how it got to level two.
The kangaroo was photographed by long-haul flight steward Marita Young, of Brighton.
Ok, so I'm at Melbourne airport & a KANGAROO has just jumped into the chemist... #notajoke #soundslikeajoke #mustneedaprescriptionfilled Jx — Julia Morris (@Ladyjmo) October 15, 2013
The chemist was locked down as Wildlife Victoria volunteers wrangled the roo into a bag and rescued the animal.
Ms Gillett said the roo was sedated by Wildlife Victoria volunteers and taken away at about 9.40am.
Wildlife Victoria said Cyrus was now on the way to a veterinarian.
Ms Gillett said that although airport staff concentrated on ensuring kangaroos did not enter the tarmac, the animals did occasionally enter the airport’s other areas.
‘‘From where we are located there are kangaroos within the area,’’ Ms Gillett said.
She said the Australian Federal Police and the Department of Environment were involved in its management program.
It is not the first time a kangaroo has been found at Melbourne’s busy airport.
In January, tourists were confronted with an eastern grey kangaroo in the multi-level car park.
Wildlife Victoria’s Emergency Response Service had two trained volunteers capture and sedate the eastern grey kangaroo.
The roo was named after Cyrus, one of the helpers on the scene.
Calls to Wildlife Victoria’s service have soared by 40 per cent this season over last spring.
This week alone 1481 calls about native animals were made to the service.
Wildlife Victoria chief executive Karen Masson said the annual figure was expected to be up by 20 per cent based on the early spike this season.
Last spring, the service received calls to help 1394 ringtail possums, 1190 eastern grey kangaroos, 245 echidnas and 205 koalas.
