Image shows two Australian kangaroos “celebrating” the rain? Fact Check

An image claims to show the moment two kangaroos began to celebrate as rain fell on Australia amid the country’s devastating 2019/2020 bushfire season.

FALSE

The image has circulated on social media with various captions, including –

No words needed. Australia got a little bit of rain and someone captured this photo…. Which says so much

Kangaroos ecstatic in the rain now falling in Australia.

However, the photo is not from the 2019 or 2020, and does not depict kangaroos “celebrating”.

Firstly, the photo was taken in 2014 and was a winner of the Australian “Nature Photographer of the Year” award. The photo was taken by the photographer Charles Davis in Geehi, New South Wales.

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Secondly, despite their appearance, the two male kangaroos are not celebrating. In fact they are engaging in an aggressive intimidation “dance”, which ends when one of the kangaroos submits or the kangaroos begin to fight.

The caption that accompanies the original photo is below.

The other roos had seen this many times and merely sat drenched and depressed waiting for the storm to pass. The young bucks on the other hand had something to prove, rearing back onto only their tails they reached as high as they could, trying to intimidate each other into submission.

The photographer has since taken to social media to denounce social media users who share the photo along with the claim the photo was recent or shows kangaroos celebrating.

Firstly I took this photo in 2014. These kangaroos are more than likely ash now and definitely aren’t celebrating anything. I can say first hand there has been bugger all rain and everything is still very much burning.

As such, we rank the claim and image false and don’t recommend spreading it on social media.