A 12-year-old boy has been bitten by a dingo.<\/p>\n
The child was knee-boarding in waters off Fraser Island, which has the Indigenous name K’gari.<\/p>\n
The dog started circling the boy before the attack, which was first reported on Friday but occurred on Monday.<\/p>\n
“The boy tried to move the dingo on by yelling and moving his arms but as he stepped back the dingo lunged and bit him on the left knee,” a Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service statement said.<\/p>\n
The boy’s parents were about 10m away from him at the time, the service reported.<\/p>\n
Rangers are investigating and attempting to identify the dingo.<\/p>\n
It’s the third incident in two weeks involving children and dingoes on the popular holiday island.<\/p>\n
On December 10 a girl was bitten on the thigh after running from a dingo near Wathumba beach.<\/p>\n
The five-year-old had moved away from her group when a dingo ran and nipped her.<\/p>\n
On December 11 a boy was chased into the water by a dingo after he ran from the animal.<\/p>\n
The service said children should be kept under constant supervision and within arm’s reach on K’gari.<\/p>\n
A series of incidents earlier in 2023 led rangers to euthanise a dingo, which had bitten a woman on the thigh while she was visiting the island.<\/p>\n
Rangers have rejected calls to cull dingoes on K’gari, blaming visitor behaviour for the spike in incidents.<\/p>\n
The service is reminding people to be “dingo safe”: encouraging visitors to walk in groups, camp in fenced areas, and not to run on the heritage-listed island.<\/p>\n
They said it was also important to keep all food, rubbish and bait locked up and never to feed the animals.<\/p>\n