MIDCOAST Council is again asking the community to refrain from approaching or feeding dingoes in the Tea Gardens / Hawks Nest area following the need for lethal control of a sub-adult pack this week.

The spate of incidents in the area prompted Council, along with National Parks and Wildlife Services and Local Land Services to begin surveillance of the group, where it was deemed that their behaviour had escalated to an unacceptable public risk.

Council follows an adopted dingo management procedure that is a risk management model based on the highly successful program in place on Fraser Island.

“We are all really disappointed that it has come to this,” said Council’s Senior Ecologist, Mat Bell.

“During the response planning phase, many options were considered including trapping and relocation in the wild or relocation to a sanctuary.

“Relocations were prevented due to the effect of the biosecurity legislation (dingoes are considered “wild dogs” under the legislation) and the lack of the time required to pursue appropriate licensing and administrative arrangements due to the escalating risk management situation.

“We know that dingoes can and should be allowed to live around the Hawks Nest area, but human intervention – while those feeding them may think they’re being kind – is what has caused the dangerous change in this pack’s behaviour.”

Mat explained that when dingoes are fed by humans, the territory where this frequently occurs becomes worth defending and sometimes within days they may become territorial and exhibit increased aggressions against those they perceive as a threat.

“It’s imperative that the community gets behind this important message and please, do not approach or feed the dingoes.

“We cannot have this continue, ultimately it’s the dingoes that suffer,” Mat said.

“This is really emotionally challenging, it doesn’t come about unless these dingos are fed.

“The big take home for Council is we have to prevent the feeding of dingos and look at compliance and taking action against people that do,” he said.

There will be reflection on the events and evaluation on what has happened and what needs to be done moving forward.

Genetic material from the dingos was collected and will be analysed.

Council has created an online reporting form for members of the public to share information about interactions and incidents with dingoes, while Rangers have also been advised to issue penalties to anyone caught ignoring Dingo Smart advice.

“Our Rangers will be following up on reports of residents feeding dingoes, but the compliance issue also falls to instances where bins haven’t been secured properly and food scraps are easily accessible,” said Mat.

“We’re also working closely with experts from Taronga Zoo and the University of NSW to increase understanding of the dingoes in our region and we’ll be running a pre-Easter awareness campaign to ensure everyone is on board to protect our dingoes before the holiday period, we’ll need the community to be advocates and lead by example to stop tourists from feeding and approaching dingoes too.”

For further information on the dingo management procedure visit Council’s website www.midcoast.nsw.gov.au/dingomanagement.

 

By Marian SAMPSON