Wild dog lunges at hunter at Mount Samaria

A LOCAL hunter has stepped forward to tell the story of an encounter he shared with a wild dog in Mount Samaria State Park in response to the ongoing conversation about wild dogs in the shire. The hunter agreed to tell his story under the condition of anonymity. “I go out hunting a lot," he said. “In Mansfield Shire, I go into the bush looking for stags out the back of Tolmie and in Mount Samaria State Park. “That means I see a lot of dogs. “Anyone who spends time in the bush around there will see a lot about. “Generally I spot them before they spot me. “They just trot along the ridges and in the gullies forty or fifty metres ahead, often in pairs but I’ve seen them in packs of up to eight. “Some of them look like what you might expect from wild dogs, mangy and unkempt. “Others, you couldn’t tell from pets — they look well-fed and healthy with shining coats. “Some of them are obviously dingoes while others look like kelpies or German shepherds that must have come from escaped or lost dogs that have bred with dingoes. “I try to limit my exposure to them. “When I see them, I hide behind a tree. “I wait fifteen minutes and then I move on. “Some say they prefer not to take the chance and just shoot them but I don’t do that. “There’s laws against it and if you fire a weapon that stag you’re looking for might disappear. “Besides, I keep noticing if you fire a gun in an area, packs of dogs seem to migrate in to investigate. “I don’t know whether it’s a coincidence or whether they’ve been conditioned by all the food left behind by the aerial culling, but they come in looking to feed on whatever animal has been shot. “So I don’t shoot unless I have to.” He recalled one such time when he was given no choice but to shoot. “I was in Mount Samaria State Park deer stalking in the gullies," he said. “It was raining quite heavily and I had my hood up to try and keep dry. “The hood and the rain made it difficult to hear. “I was cold and wet and tired when I stopped and got this strange sense that I wasn’t alone out there in the bush.” It wasn’t a specific sight or sound that alerted him — just an intuition. “I turned around and saw it," he said. “A big wild dog maybe 15 metres away from me. “Dipped low in the grass, I could tell straight away it wasn’t there to play games. “It was stalking me. “As soon as it knew I had seen it, it let out an angry snarling sound and it launched itself towards me. “I didn’t have time to raise my rifle, I just shot it from the hip hoping for the best. “The bullet hit the dog in its leg when it was no more than five metres away from me. “It whelped and its momentum carried it past me and it began sliding down the hillside. “I’m not sure what would have happened if I hadn’t fired or if the shot had missed, I kind of had a feeling it was going to try and bite my leg and pull me down.” News of the hunter’s encounter in Mount Samaria State Park comes a week after a group of Mount Samaria area farmers wrote an open letter asking Mansfield Shire Council to support them by initiating a coordinated response to increased wild dog activity on private land and rising livestock losses. If you or someone you know has had a similar encounter with wild dogs in the bush or on private land, contact edit.mcourier@nemedia.com.au.

Wild dog lunges at hunter at Mount Samaria

Farms of the future building on natural capital

Poultry lovers flock to Mansfield Show

Keeping soil in place when your paddocks are bare

Free support for landholders tackling woody weeds

Calls for fuel reduction in state forests

Rufous Whistler – arrival of a summer songbird

Bombers go back-to-back in A grade

“No stone unturned” – Police committed to the long-haul in manhunt

Start your engines, Wilby Drags are back

Most popular stories