David Anderson
A NEW South Wales ecologist, who has been making a documentary on Fraser Island, says he sees no evidence the dingo on the island is a threatened species.
Brad Purcell from the University of Western Sydney said the media in southern states have been publishing stories claiming the Fraser Island dingo was under threat.
“All I’ve seen are healthy dingoes,” he said.
Dr Purcell wrote the book Dingo based on his thesis research on functional ecology of dingoes in the greater Blue Mountains and was the scientific advisor of the National Dingo Preservation Recovery Program.
He also performed a Churchill Fellowship study of sustainable management of carnivores which took him to Africa, Poland and the USA where he studied African wild dogs, wolves and coyotes.
The Fraser Island documentary produced by Humble Bee Films compared the dingoes in the Blue Mountains with dingoes on Fraser Island and posed the question: “What is a dingo?”
“Fraser Island is a good place to study dingoes, but it would be good if people stopped annoying them,” Dr Purcell said.
He said there was a major difference between the habituated dingoes around populated areas of Fraser Island and the dingoes in the north of the island which hardly ever saw people.
He said the habituated dingoes approached people and vehicles while the natural instinct of dingoes was to be wary and cautious.
Dr Purcell said he was impressed with the way the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service was managing people around dingoes.
“There is a logical, successful management plan in place,” he said.