by Jennifer Parkhurst, Wildlife Photographer, Fraser Island
News reports are flooding the country about an alleged dingo attack on Fraser Island yesterday (April 17 2007).
A four year old girl was playing near her father's car (while he was fishing), when she was 'mauled' by the dingo yesterday, suffering 'bites to the thighs, buttocks and lower back'.
A spokeswoman from the ambulance service was quoted as saying '"The first aid people arrived, but they were there more to calm the girl down,"
News reports confirm that she was 'treated on the scene for minor injuries'.
What doesn't get reported is that the child did not require hospitalisation or stitches for deep wounds, as one would expect from a dingo attack; that the family has continued with their holiday; and that the dog was a 9 month old pup, which is now being destroyed.
Dingo pups are by nature very playful. They engage each other in play regularly, and their play involves nipping and biting each other (see the photos below). These pups wander out onto the beaches, and being naturally curious, approach people. They feint, duck and weave, as enticement to play. When an unsupervised child reacts to the dog's excitement, the pup takes up the invitation and engages in play.
I saw a similar scenario last week, where not one but two dingo pups approached a family fishing. The three little boys, under 7 years old, did not react but calmly went about their fishing, with their parents close at hand supervising at all times. The pups' excitement died down, and they ended up lying alongside the family and watching while they fished.
I was not there to observe this pup run onto the beach and maul the child, but with the reported minor injuries, I would hazard a guess that it was nipping rather than biting that occurred. Clearly, if a dingo wanted to 'maul' a child, there would need to be more than 'calming' measures taken after the event.
With mating season currently underway, last years' pups are particularly excited at present. And with a major influx of tourists due to the Easter holidays, it is inevitable that dingoes and people come into contact with each other.
This is what should be reported, instead of melodramatic hearsay using shocking language, with incomplete reporting and erroneous facts. The media should be ashamed of the circus it created on FI today while reporting the news. The irony is that while sensationalizing (reporting) the dingo attacks, they were all madly driving around trying to get footage of all the rampant dingoes on Fraser, and couldn't seem to find any. News footage on one TV channel showed captive dingoes.
One news report suggested that the attack was caused because dingoes are fed on Fraser Island by tourists. This incident has less to do with feeding the animals than it does with lack of parental supervision. It is widely believed that locals from various villages on Fraser Island regularly feed dingoes. If feeding the animals made them aggressive, then every dingo from inhabited area of Fraser Island would be aggressive and attacking regularly. We would have to completely eradicate them from the inhabited areas of the island.
If parents supervised their children as though they were in a wildlife reserve in Africa, there would be a remarkable reduction in problems with dingoes.
In fact, if parents supervised their children as though they were at home, there would be fewer problems.
Domestic dog attacks occur at alarming frequency each year, yet rarely get reported. Just last month a young girl was attacked on Rainbow Beach by a domestic dog, which was dealt with by police, yet the story never hit the news. People are careful when walking their kids past homes with large dogs behind fences, and parents are careful in parks when approached by a strange dog. Most parents have taught their kids to ask permission before patting a dog that they don't know. With all this common sense being practiced in our neighborhoods and homes, why does common sense suddenly go out the door once we are away on holidays, especially when we go to a destination that is well known to have a population of wild animals?
As someone once said: 'We all want to get close to nature – but when nature comes close to us, we want to kill it.'
QPWS can do no more than they are already doing in so far as trying to educate tourists to be aware of dingoes while they are visiting the island. When you purchase your permit, you are given a swag of information about being 'dingo aware'; when you board the barge you are confronted with yet more information. You can't walk anywhere without seeing a dingo warning sign, advising there are dingoes in the area and what to do if you see one. People simply do not go to Fraser Island uninformed about the dangers of dingo interaction.
The two dingoes that were reported to have been killed over the Easter period were pups as well, marked for killing because they were 'becoming bolder', not because they had actually done anything other than growl at someone. The QPWS is backed into a corner with having to dispose of 'problem' dogs before they even become a problem. Where does it all end?
With 400,000 visitors to Fraser Island each year, it is amazing that there are so few incidents involving dingoes. In fact, there are more incidents endangering life involving drink driving, speeding, & inexperienced driving.
How good do dingoes have to be? They are wild animals trying to exist in an ever-decreasing environment, forced away from their natural hunting and play grounds so we can feel safe.
These over-excited, exaggerated reports of so called dingo attacks need to be stopped. I hope people realize with every incident they report, they are causing the death of another dingo. These dingoes are our heritage. Fraser Island dingoes need to be treasured. Give the poor dingoes a break, or find yourself another holiday destination.
SAVE the DINGO!
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