Tourists fined over £1,000 for ‘extremely dangerous’ selfies

A pair of women have been fined 2,300AUD (£1,203) each in Australia for taking “extremely dangerous” selfies.

The women took selfies with dingoes on the Australian island of K’gari, which is in the Queensland area.

A dingo is a type of wild dog found in Australia. The animals are known as ‘wongari’ in the area where the incident took place.

The animals are able to survive independently on the island but some are no longer scared of humans.

This is usually because people have fed the wild dogs or approached them. In one of the photos, which were posted to social media, the woman was seen lying on the grass next to a sleeping dingo.

Mike Devey, compliance manager at Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, said: “Both women have made an extremely dangerous decision to interact with wongari and that’s why they have been fined.

“The woman has recklessly chosen to approach very closely to three sleeping wongari pups. She was lucky the mother of the pups wasn’t nearby.”

Mr Devey added that one of the animals in the photo was exhibiting “dominance testing behaviour” and could have bitten the woman.

He added: “Wongari are wild animals and need to be treated as such, and the woman is lucky the situation did not escalate.”

Dingoes have been involved in several recent incidents. A Brisbane woman, 23, was left with serious injuries after being bitten more than 30 times by this type of animal in the last month.

Last month, a dingo was filmed biting a sunbathing woman as she lay on a busy beach in Australia.

In April, a child was attacked by a dingo which “held her underwater for a few seconds” on Fraser Island.

Tourists are urged to stay away from dingoes and they should never feed the wild animals as this may encourage them to approach.

Visitors should also only consume food in fenced picnic areas and never leave children unattended.