Yet another dingo attack on Queensland’s K’gari (Fraser Island) has prompted renewed warnings for travellers to exercise extreme caution.
A three-year-old girl was bitten in the latest incident, which happened as the youngster and her family strolled down an unfenced beach near Kingfisher Bay on Saturday evening.
The ABC reports that fast-acting family members, and strangers wielding a kayak paddle, were able to rescue the child.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) told the ABC that the girl was bitten on the back of the leg by a tagged dingo that was being monitored by rangers.
Dingoes can cause issues for travellers on K'gari. PIC: DESI
Head ranger, Linda Behrendorff, said the family told wildlife rangers they were regular visitors to the island, were aware of the risks and had scanned the beach for dingoes.
“But dingoes are quite quick and it happened suddenly,” Dr Behrendorff told the ABC. “The dingo nipped the child … there was no major injuries and the child didn’t go to hospital, but it was still enough to scare everyone.”
Rangers reported that the parents picked up the child and tried to scare the dingo away but it was not deterred.
“People on two nearby yachts came to assist, with one using a kayak paddle to attempt to deter the dingo and maintain distance between the visitors and the dingo,” a QPWS spokesperson said.
The ABC reports the dingo lingered in the area after the incident, which can be a sign of an animal that has lost its natural fear of humans.
“It definitely looks to be a habituated dingo … habituation happens in a number of ways, one being a familiarity with humans,” Dr Behrendorff told the broadcaster. “We do remind people to not offer any food or encouragement, don’t get down close to take photos or do anything that will encourage dingoes to come to you … as soon as they lose that fear of humans, they are an increased risk.”
Rangers will investigate the dingo responsible.
QPWS said it had increased the amount of safety signs in the area and that it would increase patrols to educate tourists visiting Kingfisher Bay.
Tourists, especially those travelling with young families, are advised to keep children close at all times, always walk with a stick, and to stay in fenced areas when possible.
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Dingos are an introduced species. Now they are attacking children. They should all be culled.
The dingo was introduced to Australia at an estimated 4000 years ago, with the earliest undisputed archaeological finding dated 3250 years ago.
They well and truly pre date European introduction.
Dingo’s are not the problem, humans are. Should we cull the humans instead?
Reduce the number of humans visiting Fraser, introduce harsh penalties for interacting with Dingo’s i.e. lifetime ban from revisiting the island and confiscation and sale of all camping gear and vehicles.
Humans visiting Fraser know full well that they are not to interact with the Dingo’s, but they choose to do it anyway and create the issue.
Reduce the number of idiots that go to Fraser Island and think Dingo’s are friendly like their domestic dogs at home. Some even try to pat and feed them they think it’s like Discovery Channel on TV. Get real!
Having just come back from a 5 day camping trip from (formally) Fraser, I can say that the Dingo situation is becoming a real problem.
The first night we had 6 dingoes walk into camp. They had no fear of the 3 adults in the camp.Thumping our sticks on the ground or waving them about and yelling had very little effect on these tagged dingoes
We kept a safe camp, no food in the tent, garbage in a sealed bag and box. We even dumped our washing up water on the beach.
Even with that while we were away a dingo ripped a couple of holes in our tent windows flaps.
A woman camped near us was surrronded, attached and bitten on the hands by a pack of 5 dingoes when she walked down to the waters edge by herself. (This was reported in the news)
Every time we stopped on the beach, went fishing, went to one of the “attractions” such as Eli Creek a dingo or two would also show up. In the case of Eli Creek there was 100s of people near by, many being small children.
In my experience, they had no fear, in fact once driving on a narrow track, I had to nearly push them off the track with the car to get by.
I saw no body feed them or encourage them. They had become pests.
IMO, if they have no fear of man, they are a real problem. I was surprised to learn how many attacks are taking place. Especially on small children.
I was told by a Ranger that they tag them if they show signs of being bother some to campers. I most have encountered 50 tagged dingoes.
It’s time to start having a more aggressive management of habitualised Dingoes on Fraser before a child gets killed or seriously injured.
If you think people are deliberately interacting with dingoes on the island, you don’t have a clue about the real situation and you probably haven’t been there in years.