BRISBANE, Australia – Two dingoes that mauled a 3-year-old girl on an Australian beach have been caught and were to be destroyed, officials said Tuesday.

The girl suffered bites to her legs when the native wild dogs attacked her Monday after she wandered away from her family and into sand dunes on Fraser Island in northeastern Queensland state.

Environment Department general manager Terry Harper said the two dogs blamed for the attack were trapped Tuesday and would be humanely destroyed.

More than 200 dingoes live on Fraser Island, a popular tourist spot about 155 miles (250 kilometers) north of the state capital, Brisbane.

Fraser Island is thought to be among the last refuges for purebred dingoes, and they are a protected species in the national park that covers the island. Dingoes are also protected in some other parts of the country, though in many places dingoes that have crossbred with feral dogs are killed as pests that attack sheep and cattle.

Attacks on humans are relatively rare, though visitors to Fraser Island are warned not to feed the dingoes and to leave the animals alone.

"This is a very timely reminder for everybody about how important it is to stay very close to your children on Fraser Island," Harper said. "Adults should always stay very close to their children. We know that they do excite dingoes."

A 9-year-old boy was killed by dingoes on Fraser Island in 2001, prompting the culling of more than two dozen dogs and an overhaul of conservation practices, including warnings about human interaction with the animals.

The most famous dingo attack in Australia was in 1980, when Lindy Chamberlain reported seeing a dog carry her infant daughter, Azaria, away from a tent during a camping trip to Uluru, or Ayers Rock, in Australia's central desert.

Chamberlain was tried for murder before a series of appeals and judicial inquiries exonerated her and found the dingo claims to be true. Azaria's body was never found. The story was made into the 1988 film "A Cry in the Dark," which earned Meryl Streep an Oscar nomination.

Too true...and sadly where were the parents?

And I can bet with confidence the little one was eating something..

Dingoes are naturally timid animals...in their own environment..

the only way to protect these native dogs is to close Fraser Island..

their habitat is a mess..and the amount of fishermen who throw their fishframes in the bush...bring these guys into human's camps...they have learnt to associate humans with a food source...and rarely is it the human seen as a source.

We have dingoes, and cross breds here...lots of them, as human progress squeezes them further and further into the fringes...they come looking for food.

Fraser Island is just south of us...so am not just piffling on about something I don't know...we've been there many times...

seems like they would be about the same as coyotes or wolfs here... coyotes are very timid, i never heard of one attacking a human, but wolves can be very dangerous, a pack can bring a moose if they want to...seems like here it mostly bears and wild cats the maul humans, or pit bulls

I think...and I haven't referenced statistics....there are more shark and croc attacks than dingoes...

they are a pack animal...although young males are often seen alone..


I have a few friends who have pure bred dingoes...they have bred them, and managed them, as close to their natural instincts/habitat as possible...excepting of course the human intervention for health checks....and familiarity.

These native dogs...are curious...but by no mean choose to hang out with humans..

i've heard that to... but from what i've heard, yall have most of the most dangerous critters in the world... 7 or 8 of the top 10 venomous snakes, the most venomous spiders, deadly ants, sharks, poisonous octopus, crocs and even a poisonous mammal, the platypus... i think we have the only 2 poisonous lizards here tho... do yall have a poisonous bird too, or is that in Africa?

dangerous place you have there...lol.. oh, yea... cane toad too

There are degrees of poisonous...we even have poisonous frogs...and not the cane toad...


Hmmm...the platypus is a tiny creature...it grows to about 2 foot in length...and the male does have venemous spurs on their hind legs....would the venem kill a human?

No.


Snakes...yep...everyday is an adventure, where I live...although for many of our larger towns and cities they will have a huge uptake in venemous snakes found in suburban yards after the horrendous floods we have experienced this year.

We have commonly, the taipan, the eastern brown, king brown, the red-bellied black, the copperhead, and out of all of the common venemous ones the one I am most leery of is the brown and king brown...they are agressive! cranky things...will chase you, flip their full length back at you...and keep striking..

the redbelly black is timid...and will get out of your way...the taipan is also a timid snake...so won't give much cause for concern if you don't startle them.

I've lived my 47 years here...have spent my lifetime barefoot in the bush...and have happened on a few slumbering snakes..that were startled...


the most annoying ones are the pythons...giant bloody things...and out to eat the hens...not venemous as in deadly...but their bite is extremely painful and highly disease ridden...infection is common.


crocs...we are bit far south here, usually for crocs....however with all the flooding, am expecting more sightings..

sharks...now they are becoming a concern...as the fishstocks drop...the big guys are lurking closer and closer to where we tasty morsel humans hang out.

Spiders?...they are poisonous, but rarely deadly to humans...painful bites, and slow to heal wounds..

Ants?....OUCHY!!!...we have fire ants, green ants, and lots of nasty biteys...but again not deadly to humans...unless of course have anaphylactic allergies.

Blue ringed octopii are small creatures...very tiny, and hangout in rockpools..again apinful bites, rarely deadly.

The biggest one that scares the wee willies out of me is the Box jellyfish....that one is horrible....really long stinging tendrils that can reach metres in length...and the venom/sting stops breathing...so survival is not so good...and if you do survive the stings are so painful, they are equivalent to 3rd degree burns, and scar the same.