New guinea singing dog, RSCC

Really cute animals, they were like puppies! Seemed very interested in the builders opposite them. Thought they were awesome, want to see more

I'd love to see these guys You can have them as pet dogs (they do in the US anyway), but I think all the British (European?) ones are in zoos.

These are the only ones in Britain, not sure about Europe though.

*Hix bites his tongue*

Why ?

Maybe because marvelling at a dingo sounds strange to an Australian-or maybe because you assume something about the European zoo population of NGSDs without taking a look at
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ashley-h said:

Why ?

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Firstly, you're looking down on it from a great height (something I hate, viewing in pits or similar). The hotwire is very obvious and obtrusive. And finally, I've been to New Guinea and what I can see there lloks more like the ground outside a hut in a village, than native NG habitat. The dog is lying in the sun presumably because there is no other form of heating.

I bit my tongue because I realise I can't see the entire enclosure - perhaps the rest of it is thickly vegetated, the hotwires are obscured, there are heatlamps, and plenty of enrichment.

Or maybe not.

Hix said:

The dog is lying in the sun presumably because there is no other form of heating.

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Might the animal not just like lying in the sun? Or even, just have happened to be there when it felt like lying down?

And these are pretty hardy beasts I'd have thought - would outdoor heating in Kent really be necessary?



Edit: Just wnated to add that I haven't seen this exhibit anywhere outside of this photograph, so cannot comment on what can't be seen in the shot.

NGSDs are pretty hardy when it comes to European weather, and require heat lamps or any other kind of heating only in the coldest of winters.
Taking a sunbath is usually just the very same kind of comfort behaviour in animals as it is in humans. It does not have to indicate that the animal in question is freezing. Judging from the pic, the dingo enjoyed lying in the sun just as any other dog...

Indeed, it was warm so this one was relaxing. And there's only 2 strands of hotwire, it's hardly obtrusive lol. No, it's not thickly vegetated, I think that might be a bamboo plant that's been destroyed in the background. They had a climbing platform that doubled as their house and the usual enrichment stuff, enclosure was nothing exciting though but it was adequate.