Fraser Island dingo audit criticised | Fraser Coast News | Local News in Fraser Coast

AAP

THE QUEENSLAND Government's just-released audit of the Fraser Island dingo population has been labelled “political fairy floss”.

In his attack on the audit local veterinarian Randal McLellan went further to say it was “a load of scat and waste of money”.

The Fraser Island dingo audit was carried out by Laurie Corbett earlier this year and was posted on the Queensland Government website on Monday.

It claims dingoes are not starving and recommends Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service rangers continue the controversial practice of hazing and destroying aggressive dingoes.

According to Dr McLellan it also patted the government on the back for the success of the current Fraser Island Dingo Management Strategy.

“The government's just paid Dr Corbett to tell everyone that what they are doing is good, there's nothing independent about it at all,” he said.

In conducting the audit Dr Corbett waded through 71 public submissions.

It is believed many of these contained suggestions regarding alternative methods of managing the island's dingo population.

Suggestions included banning hazing, the shooting of dingoes with clay bullets, and building feeding stations around the island.

In the audit Dr Corbett said that “dingoes occur throughout the island's forests” and “most dingoes living in forests predominantly feed on native prey and are independent of human-derived foods”.

He did not list what foods Fraser Island dingoes were eating and failed to acknowledge autopsy reports showing dingo stomachs that were either empty or were full of sand, hair or plastic bags.

He did, however, advise QPWS to regularly assess dingo abundance, diet and food availability in forest areas “to ensure the Fraser Island dingo population is sustainable over the long term”.

Dr Corbett backed up his findings by saying that dingoes he observed on the island in March this year were “characteristically lean and appeared to be in good health”.

The audit goes on to recommend the practice of ear-tagging to continue.

“Ear tags on adults and sub-adults are appropriate because they usually allow identification without being intrusive on their behaviour,” he reported.

He advised smaller tags be trialled on pups to avoid possible disfigurement of ears.

The audit listed the disposal of fish offal and the lack of co-operation of businesses and residents as problems needing to be addressed.

Dr Corbett also said feeding stations were inappropriate because they would interfere with the hierarchy in the dingo structure.

Read more ...