Dingoes force Fraser Island camp closures

[SeekingBarradise]

Hi fella's Merry Xmas & Happy New Year.

The last thing i want is an arguement before Xmas but i will add a few things our family has experienced regarding dingoes. That is actually experienced, e.g. seen with our own eyes on cattle stations in the NT and on Fraser etc.

On one cattle station up in the NT they had no baiting program and that station was not run very well for a period of time. The dingoes formed big packs, not sure if they cross bred with the local dogs, but a lot were pure looking.

By the time we got there they had basically ripped down every calf on the station, which is a hell of a lot, as it was a big station. All you saw were cattle weighing a few hundred kg's and up.

The dingoes were having a go at them as well, hanging off the front and back of them, not a good sight to wake up to. So you can imagine as kids we were shit scared, we made sure we were never caught in those paddocks alone, or at night. The local aboriginals were very wary of them as well.

In the first baiting program we got 52 dingoes in one paddock. I guess in greater numbers they developed greater confidence and may have evolved a bit differently as they had no enemies and a unlimited food source.



As for Fraser Island, i was fishing there with my partner and i saw 2 dingoes run down a ridge and have a look at us fishing. They seemed to have no human fear. Our fishing gear was 20m away. The dogs ran back up the hill, so i kept an eye on them as growing up we learn't not to trust them, but respect their hunting skills.

I started walking back to our gear. The dingoes had double backed up around the hill and came around the back of us, i reckon they definately thought we had food and were going to check it out. I lost them up the hill a bit, but kept an eye on the thicker brush about 20m away and up the hill from our gear. Then one moved, ran down the hill and strutted away from us in a very cool way as if it didn't have a care in the world. I thought this was wierd behaviour as it wasn't acting like it wanted anything to do with our gear & headed off in the opposite direction.

I thought no way, they are not playing a 1-2 trick here or rope a dope. I reckon it was a distraction, for us to get into a false sense of security, walk away from our gear, then the other one could grab our food, if we had any.

I kept my eyes focused up the hill on the thicker brush, and bloody hell soon after i saw the other dingoe pop his head around the corner the bugger, it was sitting there keeping an eye on us. As we didn't move from our gear i reckon it took off.

Now this i wouldn't have believed if i wasn't there to see it, my wife was suprised as well. Crafty buggers, a lot of people would have fallen for that one, especially tourists or people that have never interacted with dingoes before.

Food for thought anyway, i definately wouldn't have kids anywhere near them or left alone around them, i've seen too many much bigger animals ripped down to ever forget those days. Frasers dingoes may not do this, but they do have a bad record with kids.

Adults with common sense and good parenting skills is a good start, but if a pack rushed you things do have the potential to get ugly, even if it's only a small risk. Their behaviour is different after human interaction and changes in the environment/food source etc.

Merry Xmas & Happy New Year
Cheers Lyndon.

[b8nburlee]

im gob smacked at how many of you blokes want them shot. last of the pure dingos, here for many 1000's of years before us, more native than us, kill 'em all, just so you can go camping and fishing?. if they offered you some "sport" you'd probably be wanting more of them. if it was fish you'd want to fish them everywhere including in the green zones, even if they were protected and in danger of extinction, just so your "way of life" wasnt taken away from you. theres a much bigger more important world out there than just for our/your enjoyment,
you dont go camping out in africa somewhere where you know there are wild animals that possibly would kill and eat you, you dont go camping down near waterholes in horth qld, for fear of crocs, would you completely wipe them out also? just so you could camp there? some would answer yes, but why, when its part of australia,its part of what makes this place great, most of us are proud of this country, and love it for what it is, i do. im not looking to argue here, some of you will,but i just dont understand some people's attitudes.

[PinHead]

I don't see anyone saying anything about killing all of them...only the aggressive ones. How many kids have been killed or injured from dingo attacks there? I bet your tune would be different if it was one of yours. These problems have come about from human interaction with these animals..they hold little fear of humans now. We have culled many animals in this country for various reasons: roos, dingoes, crocs, pigs, goats, camels, foxes, rabbits etc etc.
It is nothing new to cull for this reason.
I have had Rottweilers or Rhodesian Ridgebacks at various times over the past 30 years..my kids have grown up with them and the grandkids also..but if at any time any of my dogs were to bite someone I would be the first person to put a bullet in them..there is no room for animals like these that endanger human health.

[TheRealAndy]

How about you shoot the locals and the backpackers that feed them?

[b8nburlee]

pinhead, yeah mate my opening line was inaccurate, after reading the posts again all i could find was,one quote,"kill them ALL on fraser......", nothing more. ive just read and taken this to be the attitude here, that damn jerky knee of mine.
but, to be totaslly honest with you, my tune probably wouldnt be different. IF i had kids and I took them to a location that is quite well known for some sort of "animal attack" or atleast presence, without taking adequate precaution or provivding constant supervision, then i think i'd be the one who needs shooting. its not the animals fault. they're just trying to survive. now im not saying anyone here is a bad parent etc. but if you dont, wont or cant take these precautions then should you take kids there???. you wouldnt let you kids wander around carefree in a wildlife park in africa. why? because of possible attack. its really no different here in aus, is it?
i can fully understand the culling that goes on here, kangaroos, rabbits,foxes etc, in australia, its necessary, and im all for culling introduced species, and the roos that are here in plague proportions, in general, i just dont like blatant killing of any animal thats not necessary or justified and i dont believe killing all the dingos on fraser is. the dingo responsible for an attack...yes.
yes i fish, and if im lucky to have a feed also, then thats a bonus, but im happy to release as well. i even released a pike eel that drew blood from a bite the other night. my mate said "did you kill it?"..... its only doing what instinct lead it to do, the bastard got me back i spose for renching it out of its enviroment, good on it i say. no hard feelings. steve.

[Crestcutter]

Steve i am the one that said kill them all, lets not beat around the bush here. However each to there own and if the government cant control these dogs then they should be shot or relocated it's as simple as that. However, i live in the bush , i kill vermin , dingo's also get shot out here hence my so called lack of feelings for them as they are a destructive dog.

Dangerous as well, especialy if you shoot anywhere out near Killarney at dusk you will have them chase you back too your ute and they are 4 times the size of the " real dingo's" on Fraser. In saying all that they bait dingo's everywhere in Australia and know one has mentioned that? Or dont those dingo's in the outback count or is it just the Queensland coast that matters.

Hope i dont sound like i am having a go but when you live with these bastards of dogs it's just something else to destroy natural widlife and are no better than feral cats , pigs and rabbits.

[FNQCairns]

Are they Dingo's or Hybrids , if thet are Hybrids they should shoot the lot, get some pure strain dingo's and start again.

They are hybrids and I think quite very by a standard we would judge a domestic pure breed - but near the best we have, how long is a piece of string, certainly shoot the aggressive ones as it cannot matter except for in our minds.

There is an interesting link in this thread

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/sho...ght=dingo+pure

cheers fnq

[Far side]

Shoot a few keep doing it for a while no need to Genocide the species but a regular shooting program makes them afraid of humans and saves their lives. Its the same with any animal.
Removing humans from the areas is crap its our national park and we should be able to use it safely with out fear of our children being attacked.

[hodges4]

Strange how dingoes are shot on sight elsewhere in Australia. After all the're only a wild dog from Borneo or thereabouts. There's nothing 'native' about them except that they've been here for a while. Nothing rare about them either, there's probably tens of thousands elsewhere in the world. They are probably responsible for the wiping out of hundreds of native animal and bird species. We only want to protect them on Fraser because there's money being made out of tourism or they look like a domestic dog.

Wild pigs have been here for quite a while too, couple of hundred years. Don't see anyone trying to protect them.

Lets face it, these dingoes look upon our young kids playing on the beach at Fraser as food.

Get rid of them and release some proper Australian animals on the island for the tourists. There's no native animals that I know of that are dangerous to humans.

Thats my bit anyway.

John

[Jonno Lucas]

G'day John (Hodges4),

No native animals that you know of that are dangerous to humans? Saltwater Crocodiles, Cassowary's, about 25 species of snakes, Funnelweb Spiders, Blue Ringed Octopus, Box Jellyfish, a few species of sharks...there's plenty that's dangerous to us...

Dingoes were introduced about 5000 years ago to Australia, but they would have had a negligible effect on the native animals as they just took over where the Tasmanian Tiger and Tasmanian Devel left off (dingoes dominated those two species). The main threats to Australian native wildlife are altered fire regimes and habitat degradation/destruction.

I'm in two minds with regards to how to deal with them - is 5000 years long enough to classify them as native? A lot of people I respect seem to think so, and a few think not. The fact that the majority are tainted, and that they are common overseas makes me say eradicate them, but not out of respect of human safety.

[gr hilly]

its only the public that cause these dogs to hang around people now days, 35 yrs back there were plenty of them on the island if you lock up your tucker they were no problem ,stupid people feeding these dogs are making them naughty for many years 25 that i know of there are signs that say (dont feed the dingoes) but no and we have to shoot some because of some drongoes dont read ill camp anywhere on the island and they wont bother me they are the purest dingoes in australia the problem is greenhorns not reading signs or doing the right thing
hilly

[hodges4]

G'day Jonno
Your right, I was thinking about native animals that look upon humans as food and forgot about our beloved, rare and exclusive Australian crocodiles. I really have difficulty understanding how such a dangerous animal is allowed to breed up and spread seemingly unchecked.

It seems like both these predators are given some special right of passage as when they are seen it is us who must move out of their way.

All for the sake of the tourist dollar, too bad about human life.

But seriously, how can any parent with young children really enjoy a Fraser island holiday while constantly looking over their shoulder to see if some wild dog is stalking them or their kids.

At least cull them to make them terrified of people and then a sighting will be a special thing rather than common.

[Magilla]

Seems there's a lot of wringing-of-hands over the temporary closure of a couple of camping sites.

Those who don't think FI dingoes are potentially a threat, particularly to children, are just plain wrong. Because of their lack of height & size, children will always be viewed as prey by the dingoes there.

A lot of people camping still don't get it and will continue to be ignorant no matter how much education is attempted by the rangers. Afterall, they're only little doggies ....

Aerial feeding has been mooted to try and disassociate the people = food thinking of the dingoes ( plus maintain their numbers in hard times ). Can't see that working too well, as long as kids still wander around by themselves unaccompanied by their ignorant parents.

You can't totally modify the dingoes behaviour and you can't totally control behaviour of parents. Either ban kids from going to Fraser Island or, at least, make it manditory that, if you're taking kids, you have to camp in one of the fenced-off sites.

[PADDLES]

i reckon make them scared of people again. if that means shooting the ones that aren't scared then so be it. whilst we have a responsibility to the environment, humans are the master race on this planet and if we are being threatened by a rogue? animal then it must be eliminated.

to those that don't advocate culling (and i do respect your opinion on this) i pose this hypothetical question ..................... where you live right now, if a pack of wild dogs (that's what dingos are) showed up in your neighbourhood and started threatening the children (i've deliberately left pets and livestock out of this hypothetical because they are not allowed on fraser) would you want to live with them or would you want them culled? think carefully and answer honestly ...................

[Magilla]

But seriously, how can any parent with young children really enjoy a Fraser island holiday while constantly looking over their shoulder to see if some wild dog is stalking them or their kids.

Then they really should reconsider their holiday destination. There's plenty of alternatives.

At least cull them to make them terrified of people

Only makes them wary of rangers who constantly haze them with slingshots.

and then a sighting will be a special thing rather than common.

Common-as-muck at Coollooloi Creek. The pack there sit on the track waiting for their next meal to come along. Walking with the dingoes along the beach is a feature of some of the tourist operators. How do the operators make the dingoes do that?