K’gari dingo attack: Female runner attacked by pack of dingoes
As a senior K’gari ranger slams the behaviour of some island visitors who she says are also to blame for the recent spate of dingo attacks, the Queensland Government has released the status of a 2019 review into dingo policies.
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A senior K’gari ranger has slammed the behaviour of island visitors risking injury or death for a chance to get a dingo selfie, amid confirmation one of the dingoes responsible for a horrifying attack on a female jogger could be euthanised before the weekend.
The rogue male dog is the leader of a pack of four dingoes that set upon Brisbane woman Sarah Peet and forced her into the surf at Orchid Beach on Monday.
It’s one of three dingoes that island rangers have fitted with GPS tracking collars following a spate of “high-risk” behaviour including biting and lunging at fishers and campers.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service officials are believed to be finalising a response to the latest attack, with euthanisation being strongly considered.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife officer Linda Behrendorff said humans had become more brazen with dingoes and put themselves and the animal at risk.
Ms Behrendorff said dingoes could be often blamed for negative interactions when it was people who went too close.
“Social media, selfies, Facebook, get a photo with that animal, put that animal in a position that it will get into trouble, drop food from the car window so it comes to me, chasing animal around to I get the photo I want. That’s some of the stuff we are dealing with,” she said.
“Other than constantly blaming the dingo.
“40 years ago people would shoot dingoes if they came too close, now we don’t have that aversiveness, not that I want to see that but we don’t have people saying (to dingoes) you’re not welcome.”
Fraser Coast Regional Council Mayor George Seymour, however, expressed concern that “these attacks over the past couple of years have been alarming in their scale and frequency”.
“The nature of the attacks seems to have changed,” he said.
“It is a wilderness though and that’s why people want to visit; and this will always come with risks.”
Ms Peet was attacked by a pack of dingoes as she ran on a beach on the famous island, suffering dozens of significant bites before being rescued by two bystanders who punched the animals to get them away from her.
It’s understood Ms Peet had as many as 30 bite marks as well as a deep laceration to her upper arm.
Her mother, believed to be a nurse who was also on the island, is believed to have given her first-aid on the beach.
Paramedic Matthew Steer said a 23-year-old had been “corralled and harassed” by a pack of dingoes on Monday about 9.10am.
Three to four dingoes had attacked her while she was running along the beach, forcing her into the water at Orchid Beach. Two men in a four-wheel-drive ute saw the attack and helped the woman, placing her into the back of the vehicle.
The Courier-Mail has been told the two men who stopped their 4WD to save the stricken woman from the dingoes punched the animals to get them off her.
“Thankfully in these circumstances she was able to get away with the aid of a bystander who really needs a pat on the back for what he did,” Mr Steer said.
“She was probably lucky he was there to be able to help her like she did and get her away.”
While Monday’s attack was not as a direct result of provocation from humans, Ms Behrendorff urged visitors to take onus onto themselves and know the risk of coming to the island, particularly those coming with children.
She said K’gari was a privilege for visitors and offered choice to campers both fenced in away from dingoes and more open areas.
“Our job is to offer people a range of opportunities for their camping experience, but it’s those people’s obligation to make sure they know the risks in that experience,” she said.
“If they want to lay a swag out on an open beach to see the stars and feel the wind, I can assure you the wind on your face will be a dingo’s breath.”
Mr Steer said Ms Peet would need ongoing treatment for her injuries.
“Naturally as you can expect she was quite upset, it’s been a very traumatic ordeal for her.”
It is unclear whether the woman was a tourist or an island resident.
QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT STATUS REVIEW
The Queensland Government has released the status of a 2019 review into dingo policies on K’gari just days after a woman was attacked on the island.
In 2019, the Queensland Government announced an independent scientific expert panel to be established to review the Implementation Plan for the Fraser Island (K’gari) Dingo Conservation and Risk Management Strategy following three serious dingo interactions early 2019.
Environment Minister Leanne Linard, on Tuesday, said the government accepted all 43 recommendations from that review with 32 of those recommendations ‘delivered’ as at July 18 including that Orchid Beach township and additional campgrounds should be fenced.
It comes as visitors on the island are being armed with government issued “dingo sticks” to fight off the wild animals, but “investigate and trial other deterrents” is among 10 recommendations currently ‘in progress’.
Environment Minister Leanne Linard on Tuesday said the attack served as a “timely reminder of the dynamic nature of K’gari and the risk of interactions that can occurs between dingoes on the island”.
Ms Linard stressed that orange “dingo sticks”, offered to tourists to protect themselves, were an effective tool in warding away problem animals.
She suggested that if Brisbane Ms Peet had a stick when attacked on Monday, the outcome may have been different.
“If a dingo is coming at you, and let’s just say that lady the other day had one, she might have been able to keep herself at a distance until safety,” she said.
“Maybe she would visually have something they would think twice.
“It is very rare that this would happen to you but why take that chance. If you can avoid an interaction just by carrying that, that’s what I want to see.”
Ms Linard said she was concerned about the escalating number of negative interactions between humans and dingoes.
“Take a stick, please don’t go out alone, don’t allow children to wander from you, not because we want people to be on edge, we want people to be alert,” Ms Linard said.
Ms Linard said the dingo at the centre of Monday’s attack would be identified and its risk assessed in consultation with Indigenous elders.
Asked whether the dingoes involved in Monday’s attack would be destroyed, Ms Linard said “that’s obviously a consideration that will be made by rangers in conjunction with traditional owners”. The Courier-Mail has since learned one of the dingoes could be euthanised this week.
Save Fraser Island Dingoes has expressed concerns that visitors are “going in search of the dingoes”.
“We really hope that there are no vigilante activities taking place as a number of people have posted on Facebook that people should hit the dingoes, take whips over to the Island, pelt the dingoes with sand balls, use gel blasters and one even suggested poisoning,” the non-profit organisation said.
In 2019, the Queensland Government announced an independent scientific expert panel to be established to review the Implementation Plan for the Fraser Island (K’gari) Dingo Conservation and Risk Management Strategy following three serious dingo interactions in early 2019.
Ms Linard said the government accepted all 43 recommendations from that review and that some of those recommendations had been completed including new fencing at Orchid Beach, where Monday’s attack occurred.
“Parks and Wildlife have of course been briefing me, since the incident, we are continuing to investigate, they will be providing me with an update tomorrow (Wednesday),” she said.
“It is a significant step to euthanise a dingo.”
“Warnings are absolutely important for those coming to the island, I’m somebody who has camped there with my young children – it is a beautiful island but dingoes present a risk when they interact with people – we want to reduce the number of negative interactions.”
Asked if people need to take “personal responsibility” around dingoes, Ms Linard said “it’s absolutely a partnership – we are talking about a wild animal – it is an animal that’s native to the island – I know people love to see dingoes when they go to the island, there’s no doubting that they are also a tourist attraction but there can be negative interactions if precautions aren’t taken.”
“There are absolutely protocols in place for how our rangers in conjunction with our traditional owners consider whether a dingo is at a point where they feel that that sort of aggressive behaviour is inherent, they are habituated but I think the important thing is that there is no clear line,” she said.
“Dingoes are pack animals, they tend to be very territorial so they stay within their particular area – this sort of behaviour is what they exhibit.
“It has not been relayed to me in any way that the (dingoes) behaviour was abnormal – but it was very concerning that they weren’t frightened away.”
Senior ranger Linda Behrendorff said the animals involved in the attack had been identified and were being monitored and watched ahead of any decisions regarding the future of those dingoes.
Ms Behrendorff said vision from people who witnessed the incident had been provided to the department.
One of the dingoes involved in the attack had been identified as having “high risk potential”.
The dingo had been involved in a previous incident in which it had lunged “with intent to make contact”.
Ms Behrendorff said she was concerned by reports the woman had been running alone on the beach, with visitors told not to run or jog in unfenced areas.
Any decision regarding the futures of the dingoes involved would be made at “much higher levels”, Mr Behrendorff said.
It comes after a high-risk dingo was euthanised last month, the first dingo to be destroyed on the island since 2019.
Ms Behrendorff said dingoes were naturally curious and opportunistic and people needed to make sure they didn‘t put themselves into compromising situations.
“At Orchid Beach, first aid was applied to the woman’s injuries,” a statement from the Department of Environment said.
“One of the men received an injury to his hand while providing assistance to the woman.”
Rangers were on Monday trying to identify the dingoes responsible, but believe one of the animals involved was collared and had been chosen for a program to track dingo behaviour.
“Future management decisions will be made once the information has been reviewed and the investigation is complete,” the statement said.
The statement also urged people to not run around dingoes as it could trigger the animals.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was shocked to hear of the attack, particularly as it seemed the woman had been “corralled” into the water by the dog pack.
Ms Palaszczuk urged people to take heed of the numerous warning signs on the island, saying there were strong messages about not walking or running alone.
The Department of Environment said the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service will conduct an investigation.
“Residents and visitors to the island are advised to be dingo-safe at all times,” a statement from the department said.
Rangers had fitted two aggressive dingoes with GPS collars to keep track of the animals after a spate of “high-risk” incidents on the island including visitors being bitten and their tents ripped open.
QPWS last month euthanised a dingo responsible for a string of incidents including attacks on a seven-year-old boy and a French backpacker who was bitten on the bottom.
Ms Behrendorff told The Courier-Mail last week that she and her colleagues were keeping close tabs on three dingoes that were causing problems on K’gari.
“Different dingoes have different personality types – some are a bit bolder than others – and it’s our job to try and keep them separated (from humans),” she said.
“Some of them will stop this behaviour at about two years of age and just wander off. Some will have that heightened cheekiness or boldness and sometimes that can make them quite dangerous.”
Earlier this month, an eight-year-old boy was attacked by a dingo while in his father’s arms.
The incident occurred in the Happy Valley area of the island with the dingo jumping up and biting the boy on the buttocks and scratching down his back, leaving puncture wounds and scratches.
Just weeks earlier, a 10-year-old boy was bitten on the shoulder by a dingo and dragged under water in front of a campsite in June.
Around the same time, video emerged of a dingo nipping an unsuspecting French tourist on the backside while she sunbathed on an island beach.
And in April, a six-year-old girl was held underwater by a dingo at Waddy Point on the island.
She sustained multiple minor bites to her head and fingers.
Originally published as K’gari dingo attack: Female runner attacked by pack of dingoes
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