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Rangers are searching for a
dingo that attacked a four-year-old Dutch boy walking on a beach with his family on Fraser Island.
The
child was at
Hook Point, at the island's southern end, on Wednesday when the animal knocked him to the ground and bit him on the legs.
Rangers have not yet been able to track down the animal but are required to put it down, as the attack has been officially labelled a dangerous incident.
Queensland Climate Change and Sustainability Minister Kate Jones said the boy's parents and witnesses in a car were able to fend off the
dingo.
"But it took a while before the
dingo stopped being a threat to the family - it appeared to have lost all wariness of humans," Ms Jones said.
"We would regard the attack as serious and the individual
dingo as dangerous."
The boy did not need stitches and the family left Australia on Friday as scheduled.
Ms Jones said witnesses were able to describe the
dingo, including its tag.
She said rangers believe it is part of a pack that has become used to human contact.
"The pack is believed to have been regularly fed by an individual who frequents the island," she said.
"This leads to dingoes losing their natural wariness of humans and unsupervised children can be particularly vulnerable."
Feeding dingoes carries a fine of $300 and a maximum court penalty of $4000.
Ms Jones said rangers would be stepping up their
dingo awareness campaign.
One
ranger, Col Lawton, told the Nine Network his colleagues believed they knew the animal responsible.
"That particular site has been an issue for us for a number of months," he said.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said the attack was a sobering reminder that the world's largest sand island was not without its dangers.
"The EPA is taking the necessary action to remove this
dingo from the stocks there to ensure this
dingo, which appears to have lost any fear of humans, is no longer a threat," she said.
A spokesman for Ms Jones said that once the
dingo was found and confirmed as the animal responsible, it would be humanely destroyed.