Fears of dingo backlash

A dingo expert fears a culling backlash against the animal after an attack on a newborn calf near a Sunshine Coast residential area. But the Sunshine Coast Regional Council says it already has a programme that kills about 1100 wild dogs and dingoes each year.

A resident filmed two wild dingoes mauling a calf just a few hundred metres from a school and new homes in Kawana Forest, near Caloundra.

University of Queensland dingo researcher Nick Baker said he feared the footage would prompt calls from the public to cull the animal completely from the area. He said dingoes were normally selective about what they chose to eat, "which is normally wallabies, sheep and rabbits. It's possible for those dogs to approach a child but very unlikely."