A man filmed feeding two dingoes at a popular holiday destination has been fined more than $2000 in a bid to deter visitors from encouraging the wild animals to approach humans.
The 58-year-old Queensland man was filmed by a member of the public on September 7 enticing and attempting to handfeed the two dingoes at Eastern Beach adjacent to Poyungan Valley on K’gari (formally Fraser Island).
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service rangers issued the man with a $2476 penalty infringement notice on Friday.
Manager compliance optimisation Mike Devery said the man knew he was breaking the rules when he decided to feed the wild animals.
“This man has made a dangerous decision to feed and interact with wongari (dingoes), and his actions could cause legacy issues on the island,” Mr Devery said.
“It can take one incident like this to set wongari on the path to habituation, and now these wongari have been fed, they might associate people with food.
“Rangers will have to monitor these wongari closely to ensure they retain their natural wariness of people and don’t start approaching people or lingering around camping areas.
“One wongari that is becoming habituated can influence their pack – this man has fed two of them and we make no apology for handing out fines to people for their irresponsible behaviour.
“Our No.1 priority is to keep people on K’gari safe and conserve the population of wongari and this man has potentially put lives at risk.”
Mr Devery said the man’s actions were concerning considering there had been lots of recent publicity surrounding dingo attacks on K’gari.
“Sadly, we have euthanised three habituated wongari in 2023, including one at the weekend because people ignored the rules,” he said.
“QPWS rangers are extremely frustrated by this man because each day we deliver Be Dingo-safe! messaging to visitors and campers.
“And that includes never deliberately feeding wongari and never interacting with them, which this man has completely ignored.
“Residents and visitors to the island must not behave in a way that puts themselves, other people or wongari at risk.
“Most residents and visitors to the island do not accept this type of behaviour, and rangers receive a lot of information from members of the public about inappropriate behaviour around wongari.”