Last week’s dingo on attack on a two-year-old boy on Fraser Island has once again ignited debate about what measures – if any – should be taken to ‘manage’ the wild dogs.
The child was bitten on the head, neck and legs during the attack at Orchid Beach, and was flown to the Bundaberg Hospital before being treated and discharged. The ABC reports that nine people have now been attacked by dingoes on the island in the past three years.
Campers have reported dingoes ‘circling’ and stealing clothing of washing lines, and it is this sort of encounter which prompted Queensland Parks and Wildlife rangers to close six campgrounds until at least June.
Breeding season for dingoes is between March and May on the island, meaning the animals are at their most aggressive as they move about looking for mates.
Ranger-in-charge Linda Behrendorff said the fact that some visitors are still feeding the animals was leading to more high-risk situations.
“It’s quite selfish — they want to get these up-close photos, draw them in by offering food or drawing them closer to their car or even in some instances trying to attract the dingo to pat it,” Ms Behrendorff told the ABC. “I don’t believe they understand the implications of their actions.”
There have been suggestions that one possible solution to the dingo problem would be to provide feeding stations so that the animals aren’t starving, and therefore aren’t going to hunt whatever they can to survive.
However, wildlife researcher Dr Benjamin Allen has condemned the feeding station concept.
“It’s probably one of the dumbest ideas you could come up with to try and fix a problem like this,” he told the ABC. “”There a certain number of dingoes on the island, probably about 100, and every year a hundred new ones are born, there’s not enough food or space for 200, so 100 of them die … and the cycle repeats itself, year after year.”
He said boosting food supplies for wildlife was a strategy sometimes used to help threatened species.
“But where we have human-wildlife conflict, where you’ve got predators biting people, the last thing you want to do is provide them free food,” Dr Allen said. “It’s what gets us into this mess in the first place, it just makes more aggressive ones that want to be fed.”
The Department of Environment and Science said there were on-the-spot fines of $2,088 with a maximum penalty of $10,444 for feeding or disturbing dingoes.
People are still feeding the dingoes. It is extremely difficult to put brain in pumpkins.
It is the responsibility of the parents to supervise their children. They know they are in dingo territory just like if they were in crocodile territory they would not leave children unsupervised.No action should be taken against the dingoes.
Spot on, Geoffrey!
I think the best thing to do is to shut down the island for 5 years, to allow, 8 generations of dingo’s to be born, where they have no interaction with people, and then they just hunt for their food. After 5 years, they should have no memory of being fed by humans. I do not believe in a cull. They were there first, as were the indigenous peoples, so they and the dingo’s wellbeing should come first.
Interesting analagy Ric…
But what happens then..??
Does the people meets dingo cycle start all over again..??
We hav4 been going to Fraser for over 20 years and never seen any agressive behaviour from dingos. Have seen stupidity from tourists feeding them, and as was said, parents should know where their young children are. A major cause of young children’s problems come from lack of proper parental supervision.
Totally agree John. We own a share in a house at Orchid. Have been going to Fraser for over 40 years. The main problem with dingos is stupid people. You can’t fix stupid!
Agree Andy, during the 1950s, my family lived side by side with the beautiful dingo on Sandy Cape lighthouse. Four young children were informed to look, be aware but do not interact. A dingo pack was living comfortably within 100 metres of the station. We used to drive slowly pass them daily without any issues. These magnificent animals and beautiful cubs observed us as we passed, no problems were encountered. Skip forward 70 years and education is non existent, tourists do not care and people are getting hurt. Now is time to restrict access to certain areas to allow these wonderful animals to live in peace. Ensuring a food supply could be needed.
spot on also do not leave food in your tent they have been known to rip them open —there is not much food on the Island for them —most of the horses have gone no wallaby’s=== have been gong there since the late 60s it is not like it used to be back then
Yes, I think the dingoes don’t have much food there. And if that truly is the case, perhaps they should be relocated, to where – I don’t know. But if there is plenty of food for the dingo, then relocate the people.
Make fenced designated camping areas – it’s their Territory, they are wild dogs.
And keep the tourists locked inside the fenced area !!!
This is NOT a “Dingo Issue”, this is a “Irresponsible People Issue”. While people want to feed and interact with wild animals like the Dingo, in their natural habitat on Faser Island, the Dingos will attack because that`s what they do, especially if smaller prey like children are in their domain. Therefore, we should ban all children on Faser Island and also raise fines tenfold for all those morons that don`t obey the rules.
Its easy to fix. Shoot the dingoes. No more problem. a few years back the rangers under pressure caught and took 20 dingoes from the island and put them into forestry in the Monduram area bordering a cattle property. Two weeks later all the dingoes were dead by baiting program, so do the authorities really care about the dingoes?
What person in their right mind would allow their 2 year old child anywhere near a dingo !!! Leave the animals alone and cull the amount of people visiting the Island…
The people should not be on the Island qld is a big place go somewhere else.
Most states are trying to protect their wild lifes habat
Agree. Close the island. Lots of lovely place to go, instead.
I found the Goaanas more determined than the dingoes. Had one in my tent tring to open our esky.
Melbourne suburbs have too many possums – happy to contribute mine to support the dingoes…
The child got out of a house early in the morning while the occupants were asleep. So who is to blame. Maybe caring for your children might be a better option
“When all is said and done, there is more said than done”
The best-done is to relocate all of the Dingos back in the wild of the outback on the other side of the Dingo Fence.
There I said it, now let see if the authorities will see it done.
John Rodgers
How is the dingo to blame when the child somehow managed to wander off on its own? The only problem I can see is with stupid people who are trying to get close for selfies etc. Would they do the same with a croc? There never seems to be any problem with people who are staying in the cabins & resorts only the campers.
In the olden days humans were at the top of the chain. Now sharks can eat people but people can’t eat sharks, crocodiles can eat people but people can’t eat crocodiles, dingoes can bite people but people can’t bite back. Humans are moved out and Camp grounds closed so some wild dog or crocodile or ant can better enjoy life. Ultimately the new generations will be encouraged and will eventually adapt and be happy to stay in their apartments and libraries and not intrude on all those predators that minority groups have successfully promoted to the top of the chain whilst ignoring & pushing aside the wishes of the majority. It will be a sad world. Most of us have lived in the best years and made the most of Australia without inflicting any real damage and pain. Before human intervention 240 years ago how many dingoes lived on Fraser Island? I feel so sorry for the new generations. Palms
Couldn’t agree more.
Kill them all. And everything else that we don’t like. Steralize the landscape. Nature got no right with us humans.
just stop all tourism to fraser island and then certain people might agree to cull when the loss of the dollar kicks in.
For goodness sake 6 attacks in a few weeks majority children. Jan 25. They need culling . They are wild vicious animals. Children xant protect themselves. Attacks happening when they are with their parents