Posts Tagged ‘dingo’
I remember reading about a tourist who was killed by a lion in an African Wildlife park.
The man, deliberately ignoring all the warnings liberally signposted through the area, got out of his car and walked up to a pride of lions, camera in hand. Skirting the recumbent lionesses, he focused his camera on the big lion – right up close and personal – and popped a couple of flash pictures off. The lion, cross at being disturbed and no doubt annoyed by lights going off in his eyes, took a swipe at the tourist. When a fully grown lion bats you with his heavy paw the result is no surprise. The tourist was killed.
Was there an outcry for all lions to be immediately shot? Did the Park Rangers cancel all weekend leave and hunt down every lion in the area? No, for it was understood that the lion was provoked by a foolish person who ignored all safety rules.
In Australia it’s different. If someone goes up to a wild dingo to bestow a friendly pat and offer the dog a bite of hamburger, the result will also be no surprise. Dingoes, too, are wild creatures.
Spare a thought for the oldest dog in the world, the ancestor of all dogs. He’s in Australia and he’s classified as vermin in his own land for the crime of killing a few sheep when he can get the chance.
And yes, people have been killed by dingoes. Two people. Sadly, children, unsupervised children, who approached a wild dog expecting him to act like the friendly mutt next door.
Here’s the lens on the Dingo, the ancestor of modern dogs.
