A photo posted to the Tourism Australia Facebook page has caused an uproar among commentors. (Tourism Australia/Facebook)

In a Facebook post Tourism Australia appears - judging by the smiley face included - to have intended as a joke, it posted a photo of the country's most famous resident, the kangaroo, with its genitals blurred out.

Trouble is, most people seem to have missed the humor.

The photo shows the kangaroo lounging in the sun with its genitals blurred out. The caption reads "Enjoying a lazy afternoon at Featherdale Wildlife Park. *Censored for Facebook."

One commentor wrote, "It's ridiculous that the reproductive organs of an animal are blurred out. How many sickos out there think this is sexual. Society sickens me."

Another wrote "You have just lost ALL my respect. I shall now remove the link to you, good bye, oh, and grow up. I was brought up in my teens in Australia : You do not represent the Australia I knew and loved."

But when one commentor wrote "laughing at 'censored for facebook,"' Tourism Australia responded "Best to be on the safe side :)"

The post has been "liked" almost 30,000 times and there are 1,600 comments.

Facebook didn't respond to request for comment regarding the official policy around photos of animals genitals. But when a photo of a woman's elbow was confused with a nipple last year, the site took the photo down. It later apologized and restored the image. Facebook does remove all photos of (human) exposed breasts.

Several people have since posted the "uncensored" version of the kangaroo in question to Tourism Australia's Facebook page.