A selfie with three dingoes has landed a New South Wales woman in hot water and prompted authorities to issue a warning to all visitors to the Queensland island of K’gari.
The Department of Environment and Science said the 29-year-old was one of two women to receive a $2300 fine after they documented their encounters with the dingoes on social media.
A 25-year-old Queensland woman was also hit with a penalty notice after her encounter with a dingo, also known as wongari, was posted online.
The department’s compliance manager Mike Devery said both women made “an extremely dangerous decision” to interact with the animals and they were lucky the situations did not escalate.
“The Queensland woman could have been bitten by the wongari (dingo), which was clearly exhibiting dominance-testing behaviour,” Devery said.
“Wongari are wild animals and need to be treated as such.
“The New South Wales woman has recklessly chosen to approach very closely to three sleeping wongari pups.
“She was lucky the mother of the pups wasn’t nearby.”
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It is believed the 24-year-old had up to 30 lacerations to her arms, legs and torso after the incident.
Senior ranger Linda Behrendorff said most of K’gari is bushland, which gives the dingoes plenty of territory to live, hunt and raise their pups.
“Unfortunately, wongari that venture near the public areas can become quickly habituated,” Behrendorff said.
“And one interaction can be the start of wongari becoming habituated, because they lose their natural wariness of people.
“Residents and visitors to the island cannot treat wongari as cute, hungry or something to play with.
“The wongari will start to approach people for food, and that can put wongari and people at risk.”
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