This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Wildlife carers have called for better safeguards to be put in place for kangaroos after two separate cases of rogue marsupials infiltrating Australian airports.

Passengers at Melbourne airport were startled to discover a male kangaroo hopping inside the terminal on Wednesday morning.

The animal, dubbed Cyrus after one of the helpers on the scene, was cornered in a pharmacy, where it dislodged several toiletry products before being sedated and removed by wildlife volunteers.

The intrusion follows a prolonged rampage by a large male kangaroo at Bundaberg airport in south-east Queensland.

The maverick eastern grey kangaroo has evaded capture for two months, despite attempts to trap it with dogs and even to shoot it. There are concerns that the kangaroo, which is regularly spotted eating grass near the aircraft hangar, creates uncertainty for landing pilots by bouncing across the airstrip.

Airport visits by kangaroos are not unheard of – last year a distressed animal was found on the fifth floor of Melbourne airport’s multi-storey car park.

Amy Amato, of Wildlife Victoria, which sedated and removed Wednesday’s intruder, told Guardian Australia the animal was severely traumatised.

Wildlife Victoria volunteers Ella Roundtree and Geoffrey Fuller with 'Cyrus'. Photograph: Wildlife Victoria/AFP/Getty Images

“It has injuries to its teeth, of all things, which we aren’t sure if he got from bashing into something,” she said. “We removed it to a wildlife shelter in Gisborne and we will keep an eye on it.

“Hopefully it will survive the night. Kangaroos can get a condition called capture myopathy, which is caused by severe stress and can kill them. This animal was very stressed.”

Amato said more needed to be done to stop kangaroos entering the airport.

“It is slightly bizarre but there are a couple of big mobs of kangaroos around this area, as this was their habitat before we moved in,” she said.

“It’s an issue for their safety and also human safety. Something needs to be done as this issue hasn’t been looked at properly. Serious plans need to be put in place – you can put in fences high enough that they can’t jump but if a car can get in, so can a kangaroo.”

Amato added that calls to the volunteer service for animal rescues had soared “astronomically” this spring compared with last year. Calls to the volunteer service to help possums, kangaroos, echidnas, koalas and other animals had risen by 40%, year on year.

A spokeswoman for Melbourne airport said: “The kangaroo was contained in the pharmacy for its own safety and the safety of everyone else. There won’t be any review of our processes.

“This is an unfortunate incident but we haven’t had a kangaroo in the terminal before. We believe it only came in because it was injured.”