Kangaroos occasionally like to take to swim when the heat is up Down Under, but catching a wallaby out at sea is very much out of the ordinary.
Marine scientist Laura Peregrin was meant to be spending her day off diving near Arrawarra Beach on the New South Wales coast, until she and her friends noticed an unusual, furry shape in the water on Nov. 7.
What was first mistaken for seal, turned out to be a 30 kilogram (66 pound) male wallaby swimming alone a long way from home. "I think we all said at the same time, it's a kangaroo!" Peregrin told Mashable Australia.
"It looked so exhausted and really tired," Peregrin said, who estimates that they were nearly one kilometre (1,093 yards) from shore, with Peregrin not sure if the wallaby could swim that well.
Peregrin and her friends decided to try and rescue the distressed animal.
"We were pretty close, but not enough to get him. We didn't want to scare him either," Peregrin said. It was then the wallaby started to paddle his way towards the boat after seeing it, attempting to try and grab something solid.
When they tried to help, its "massive claws" and "defensive" nature made it a dangerous, difficult task to bring him on board their small boat. "We gave up, actually. We said look, this can't be done," Peregrin said.
They decided to leave him there and made their way on to their diving site -- but shortly after they were compelled by their conscience to change their minds. "We turned around and planned it well," Peregrin said.
The group decided to put a towel over the wallaby's head to help ease tensions, as the rest of the crew pulled him up on to the boat by his legs. "Straight away when we did that, he calmed down," Peregrin said. The wallaby luckily stayed in a chill mood until they reached back to shore.
Upon reaching land, the wallaby was released where it stood still for a few minutes. "It caught a couple of breaths, then he went, and hopped off -- never looking back," Peregrin said.
We'll bet this wallaby won't be taking another dip anytime soon.