TRANSCRIPT
Visitors to Queensland's K'gari Island are once again being warned of an increase in Dingo attacks, with breeding season set to begin in March experts are warning tourists to stay on high alert.
K'gari Island, formerly Fraser Island, is home to hundreds of wild Dingoes, often spotted by tourist groups on tours of the World Heritage-listed sand island.
Dingoes, also known as Wongrari by K'gari's indigenous Butchulla people, are part of the ecosystem on the island, but many are increasingly interacting with people, who through feeding the wild animals cause them to return to areas frequented by tourists.
While it is illegal for humans to interfere with the dingoes of K'gari, six attacks in as many weeks have prompted fresh warnings.
Senior Ranger at the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service Doctor Linda Behrendorff told SBS that while interactions between people and dingoes are not rare, many aren't considered dangerous.
“Interactions are relatively common, but they start off as what we'd call a code C interaction which is benign, they might be hanging around or they've stolen a towel or they've come into a camp area. And they can they can get into quite a large amount. It's when they become D and E interactions which are threatening and high risk that we really need to take notice and people need to understand that they need to understand their risk in that space and get themselves into that situation. So D's are things like growling, being dominant, which people often call play behavior, right up to E which is actually attacked or being bitten.”
QPWS rangers are investigating two recent incidents on K'gari where separate attacks on tourists occurred just five hours apart.
In the first, an 18-year-old woman was bitten on the back of the leg; then just hours after the first attack another person, on a separate tour, was nipped on the beachfront near Dilli Village.
Rangers on the island are urging visitors on K'gari to remain vigilant at all times with dingo breeding season approaching and increased aggression expected.
Doctor Behrendorff says rangers are doing everything they can to prevent dingo attacks.
“There are numerous risk mitigation measures that are undertaken and that includes some of your large infrastructures such as fences around townships or high use visitor areas, through to regular range of patrols. There's signage, there's websites, campers to the island even received text is billboards. There's a huge campaign that's happening at the moment to sort of highlight the be dingo safe messages that that's going on. So people that are coming close to go will see billboards, they'll see other risk mitigation methods in place like signboards, increased range of patrols. We also work with traditional owners that have a dingo or Wongari enhancement team as well which are face to face briefings for people to remind them of their 'be dingo safe' obligations.”
During breeding season, which occurs once a year between March and May, dingoes - and males in particular - grow increasingly aggressive.
Fights between male dingoes will often break out during this period, as the males attempt to establish dominance and defend their territory.
At times, this territorial and domineering aggression will extend to humans through snarling, biting and nipping.
"So, the latest number of high risk incidents is definitely due to that seasonal occurrence of the breeding season coming in, so we've got sub-adult dingoes now that are dispersing moving into their own areas trying to assert themselves I guess into these, these areas, and are generally more dominant towards each other, and if humans are in the way, like you know, say walking on their own without groups they might inadvertently find themselves in a situation where they also get dominance tested."
Doctor Behrendorff says the increase in dingo attacks is a seasonal occurrence, but says there are a few factors that may be heightening the risk.
"There's a couple of animals that may have been euthanised for high risk behavior, but due to COVID and the island closing down these animals have got through to their adulthood, and they've now bred and had their own young which have those traits and are being taught that familiarity."
Associate Professor of Wildlife Management and Research at the University of Southern Queensland, Benjamin Allen told SBS that only a few of the dingoes on K'gari are causing problems for people.
He says that some dingoes on the island have become habituated and have now grown accustomed to human interaction through repeated exposure, creating a risk for both the dingo and people.
"There's probably anywhere between 150 and 200 animals on the island at any one time. But you don't see 200 dingoes, the ones you see are the same usual suspects that are hanging out on the beach in the touristy places. And those ones, I don't know, I sort of jokingly refer to it as 'seagulls syndrome'. You give it a chip and then it wants the whole hamburger, and these seagulls got teeth. You don't really want to mess with them, but what happens is there's a small proportion of people, a very small proportion of people, that gives them enough chips so to speak, that they become habituated and just want that hamburger. It's not even necessarily the one feeding them the food it's the one, you know, who comes later, that bears the brunt of that."
Mr Allen says people need to take these animals seriously and that even those doing the right thing need to be prepared.
"I'd just reinforce to people that they need to take dingoes seriously. I know they look like a dog and they're beautiful, and just to see them trotting along you're like 'oh it's magic', you know, it's a beautiful place. Paradise actually is what K'gari means it's a beautiful place, and they're beautiful animals, but they mean business. And don't get complacent, just follow all the rules."
