DNA TESTS SHOW MOST “WILD DOGS” ARE NATIVE DINGOES
March 26, 2021 – scroll down for the results of another newer study.
Almost all wild canines in Australia are genetically more than half dingo, a new study led by UNSW Sydney shows – suggesting that lethal measures to control ‘wild dog’ populations are primarily targeting dingoes.
The study, published today (March 26, 2021) in Australian Mammalogy, collates the results from over 5000 DNA samples of wild canines across the country, making it the largest and most comprehensive dingo data set to date.
DINGOES PLAY IMPORTANT ROLE IN MAINTAINING BIODIVERSITY & ECOSYSTEM HEALTH
Professor Mike Letnic, senior author of the study and professor of conservation biology, has been researching dingoes and their interaction with the ecosystem for 25 years.
He says they play an important role in maintaining the biodiversity and health of the ecosystem.
“As apex predators, dingoes play a fundamental role in shaping ecosystems by keeping the number of herbivores and smaller predators in check,” says Prof. Letnic.
“Apex predators’ effects can trickle all the way through ecosystems and even extend to plants and soils.”
Prof. Letnic’s previous research has shown that suppressing dingo populations can lead to a growth in kangaroo numbers, which has repercussions for the rest of the ecosystem.
For example, high kangaroo populations can lead to overgrazing, which in turn damages the soil, changes the face of the landscape and can jeopardise land conservation.
A study published last month found the long-term impacts of these changes are so pronounced they are visible from space.
But despite the valuable role they play in the ecosystem, dingoes are not being conserved across Australia – unlike many other native species.
“Dingoes are a listed threatened species in Victoria, so they’re protected in national parks,” says Dr Cairns. “They’re not protected in NSW and many other states.”
STUDY – 90% OF DINGOES PURE – NOT DOG HYBRIDS
June 2, 2023
A Victorian bounty scheme that pays farmers more than $100 for “wild dog” pelts has come under fire after new research revealed most dingoes in the state are purebred.
In new research published this week in Molecular Ecology, scientists from the University of NSW and Sydney University undertook comprehensive DNA testing on 307 wild animals from across Australia and found, contrary to popular belief, about 90 percent of them were pure dingoes, not hybrids.
MILLIONS SPENT KILLING DINGOES
Deakin University ecologist Professor Euan Ritchie said the new research suggests that most of the animals called wild dogs are actually dingoes.
“I’d like to see some evidence-based policy,” said Ritchie. “Dingoes have an important ecological role as an apex predator, and they have important cultural value – many First Nations groups wants to have dingoes back on Country.”
Ritchie would like to see the money [MILLIONS SPENT ON KILLING DINGOES] invested in alternative pest control methods, like training graziers to use guard animals such as alpaca or maremma dogs, or installing quality fencing.
[Study author, Dr Kylie] Cairns agrees: “You’re listing them as a threatened species, but not protecting them across large areas and encouraging people to kill them.”
Dingoes have been in Australia for between 5000 and 11,000 years.
“DINGOES WORTH $20,000 EACH”
Killing dingoes costs millions of dollars each year. But it hasn’t resolved the conflict.
In many cases it has made the threat to livestock worse by breaking up dingo families and removing experienced adults who hunt larger, more mobile prey.
The alternative? As some farmers are discovering, there are unexpected benefits of learning to coexist with dingoes instead.
As Western Australian cattle grazier David Pollock told us:
I reckon my dingoes are worth $20,000 each, probably more. So, killing them would be the last thing that I did.
Yes. In many cases, they can be allies for graziers by reducing the competition for pasture from wild herbivores such as kangaroos and goats, as well as killing or scaring off foxes and feral cats.
As our understanding of the importance of predators has grown, a new approach has taken root: human-wildlife coexistence.
Recently recognised by the United Nations Convention of Biological Diversity, this field offers a path to stem the global loss of biodiversity by balancing the costs and benefits of living alongside wildlife.
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