WE THOUGHT it was a male kangaroo grasping his dying mate for one last family hug with their joey.

Oh boy, were we wrong.

The photographs were captured by Queensland man Evan Switzer who was out for a morning walk with his dog when he came upon the scene.

He said: “The kangaroo tried to lift her up and she wouldn’t stand, she’d just fall to the ground. He’d nudge her, stand beside her ... it was a pretty special thing. He was just mourning the loss of his mate.”

But the Australian Museum’s principal research scientist, Dr Mark Eldrige, said the photos actually show something very different.

Rather than trying to cradle the dying female kangaroo, the male kangaroo was trying to be, ahem, amorous.

“Great photos of the kangaroos, but I think they are fundamentally misinterpreted,” he wrote on the Australian Museum’s blog. “The male is clearly highly stressed and agitated, his forearms are very wet from him licking himself to cool down.

“He is also sexually aroused: The evidence is here sticking out from behind the scrotum (yes, in marsupials the penis is located behind the scrotum).”

Dr Eldridge said the male was not trying to “prop her head up so she could see her joey before she died. Instead, this is a male trying to get a female to stand up so he can mate with her”.

“Eastern Grey kangaroos can breed throughout the year but mating mainly occurs in spring and early summer. The younger individual is probably the female’s last pouch young who may be still suckling.”

The scientist’s revelation puts Mr Switzer’s comments in a different light.

Mr Switzer said the male kangaroo had been at it for over an hour and had warded off other kangaroos during that time. We guess the roo was just been determined and territorial.

Mr Switzer said kangaroos frequented the area, however they never caused any trouble.

“My dog first alerted me to what was going on ... and I thought ‘this is pretty special’, so I raced home and grabbed my camera,” he said. “When I came back, they were still there.

“I was about 10m away for most of it. Other kangaroos would come over, but the buck would keep chasing them away every time.

“I went and checked the mother’s pouch and there were no babies inside it. There were no real visible wounds on her.”

The joey stood nearby, softly touching its mother before standing upright by her side in a protective stance.

Mr Switzer said his picture had attracted interest from as far afield as England.

“It will certainly give us something to talk about at our camera club tonight.”

It sure will, Mr Switzer.