Oz animals attract ... and kill
2001-05-05 10:40
Sydney - Dingoes maul a 9-year-old boy to death. Sharks kill three swimmers in less than a year. A tiger snake's repeated bites prove fatal.
As animals attack tourists with alarming regularity, Australia faces a dilemma: How to attract visitors to the untamed wilderness while protecting them from dangerous animals that are part of the appeal.
"It is part of the attraction and it is not only about dingoes, it is about crocodiles and sharks," said John Morse, managing director of the state-funded Australian Tourist Commission.
"Dangers exist here just as they do in other parts of the world," he said. "So people need to be aware of that, but God help us that we sterilise the country so much that people don't want to come here."
As tourism officials struggle to safeguard visitors,
conservationists say it is the animals that need to be protected
from people roaming in their traditional habitats.
Nine of the world's 10 most poisonous snakes are Australian, and the world's deadliest spider, the Sydney funnelweb, is often shaken out of shoes in suburban homes.
In northern Australia, saltwater crocodiles that reportedly can grow up to eight meters in length, lurk in creeks and pools and have been known to attack humans.
Northern beaches are closed for half the year because jellyfish whose stings can kill children drift close to the shore, and three of the 10 fatal shark attacks world-wide last year occurred off Australian beaches.
Mauling death brings urgency to debate
But the mauling death of 9-year-old Clinton Gage last week on Fraser Island, a popular tourist area off Australia's eastern coast in Queensland, added new urgency to the debate.
About 200 dingoes - lean, sand-colored wild dogs - roam Fraser Island, a wilderness of sand dunes dotted with stands of eucalyptus trees and subtropical rain forest. The opportunity to see dingoes up close is one of the island's main attractions.
"Taking the dingoes out of Fraser Island is equivalent to taking all the wildebeest out of the Serengeti or all of the lions out of the Kruger National Park," said John Sinclair, a conservationist and member of the Fraser Island Defenders' Group.
But the sight of the dogs scavenging in campsites and settlements is set to end. After the boy was killed - and his 7-year-old brother injured - park rangers armed with rifles began shooting dingoes found close to places where they could come into contact with humans.
Queensland state authorities moved swiftly to reassure tourists they were doing all they could to protect visitors, the life blood of places like Fraser Island.
According to the Australian Tourist Commission, 1.3 million foreign visitors arrived in Australia in the first quarter of 2001, generating $141 million in revenue. Queensland is one of the top destinations.
Animal attack risk quite small
The risk of animal attacks is relatively small - the wild dog killing was only the second recorded fatal mauling by a dingo - compared with other dangers such as drowning.
But the effort to protect tourism has enraged conservationists who say tourists eager for a snapshot with a dingo often get too close to the animals or try to tempt them with food.
"You can't have 300 000 tourists a year and not expect attacks and bites," Bruce Jacobs, director of the National Dingo Association, said of the situation on Fraser Island.
Queensland Conservation Council co-ordinator Felicity Wishart called for an end to the cull until dingo experts hold a discussion over the best way to handle the problem.
"We don't believe this is the solution and we need calm heads," Wishart said. "The situation is tragic but we have to keep in mind that it has arisen because people are feeding the dingoes." - Sapa-AP
- SAPA