Captive dingoes

D

DiNgO BoY

Member
Hello everyone,

I am a dingo researcher from Adelaide, and I am trying to create a list of zoo's and wildlife parks that house dingoes. I have started a list for Australian states as best I could, but if you know of any others I have missed can you please post it here, including any details about them?
Captive facilities overseas are also welcome.

Thanks so much for your help!

South Australia
Cleland Wildlife Park (Adelaide)
Gorge Wildlife Park (Cudlee Creek)
Urimbirra Wildlife park (Victor Harbor)
Bredl’s Wonder World of Wildlife (Renmark)

Western Australia
Perth Zoo (Perth)
Koala Park (East Kelmscott)
Marapana Wildlife Park (Perth)

Victoria
Wild Action Zoo (Macedon)
Healsville Sanctuary
Dingo Discovery Center (Toolern Vale)

New South Wales
Taronga Zoo (Sydney)
Featherdale (Sydney)
The Australian Reptile Park (Somersby)
Wirrimbirra Sanctuary/Bargo Sanctuary (Bargo)
Australian Walkabout Park (Sydney)

Queensland
Billabong Sanctuary (Townsville)
Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary (Gold Coast)
David Fleay Wildlife Park (Gold Coast)

Northern Territory
Territory Wildlife Park (Darwin)
 
additions from ISIS

Thanks CZJimmy. I have just looked at the site and can now add the following to the list:

National Zoo and Aquarium (Western Creek)
Alice Springs Desert Park (Alice Springs)
Australia Zoo (Beerwah)
Dreamworld (Coomera)
Western Plains Zoo (Dubbo)
Moonlit Sanctuary (Pearcedale)
 
There were Dingoes and New Guinea Singing Dogs at London Zoo in the UK, during the 1960's. Sadly I've never seen any in our zoos since then...
 
The Kyabram fauna park in country Victoria has four. Two breeding pairs.
 
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Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, Fort Wayne Indiana USA has 0.1. Our male died two weeks ago:( Ours were born in Warsaw Poland.
 
There are still some dingos in Poland. I am quite sure about Safari in Swierkocin, zoos in Lodz and Opole. Probably there are some also in Zamosc. But most of them are old animals, not allowed to breed. This specie is beeing phased out in Poland, and not only there.

There is only last remaining animal in Czech rep, in zoo Hodonin, also highly aged. Slowakia is already a dingo-free country.
 
wild dingoes in Oz

Dingo Boy- What's the situation with wild dingoes nowadays? I know they've been persecuted in some parts and also much hybridising has gone onwith domestic dogs- I heard purebred Dingo are now rare(extinct?) in Eastern coastal Australia- how are they faring elsewhere?
 
fraser island has the purest dongo in Australia, people aren't (or atleast weren't) allowed to take dogs on to the island which has saved them a bit. . . there are a few people around trying to keep the blood lines pure. I would say there would be few pure wild dingo though
 
Chewton Dingo Farm near Castlemaine in Victoria is under new ownership and is culling heavily and working very hard to breed Dingos true to the various types.

In Queensland, zoos and parks are prohibited from breeding Dingos.
 
Dingo Status

Pertinax said:
Dingo Boy- What's the situation with wild dingoes nowadays? I know they've been persecuted in some parts and also much hybridising has gone onwith domestic dogs- I heard purebred Dingo are now rare(extinct?) in Eastern coastal Australia- how are they faring elsewhere?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the question. Firstly I will have to mention that such an answer is difficult to provide given that there has been little research conducted on dingo populations and hybridisation. I will attempt based on my current understanding of the area.

There are many areas in Australia which have pure colonies of dingoes. These include for example remote areas of NT, SA and WA (including the Kimberley Islands which is suggested to have the purest strain in Australia). Dingo-dog hybrids are much more common below the dingo fence (which if you didnt know spans across the country for a bit over 5000km from SA through to the east coast) and also in areas of high human occupancy.

Trying to also answer the other post regarding Fraser Island purity, it is extremely likely that they are all pure. However, one study (using skull measures) found that 17% of Fraser Dingoes are hybrid (this is considered a method rought with problems and results seem unlikely). Only until later did dogs become banned from Fraser Island so it is possible. The main problem on Fraser is that it is an isolated community and so inbreeding occurs. Parks (who manage the dingoes) are also on a mission to destroy any dingo they consider 'trouble', so their numbers are potentially not being maintained due to human destruction.

Much of the hybridisation hype comes firstly from Australian Farmers (who want to see the demise of the dingo, and believe it a good justification to remove them) and from work conducted by scientist Laurie Corbett who used mainly skull measurements (which has many problems and not seen as that acurate a measure). More recently DNA (primarily Alan Wilton) has given more insight into hybridisation and many hybrids have been found in the eastern states.

There are also behavioural barriers to hybridisation. Firstly dingoes are not very accepting of dogs or strange canids. They also must bond which may take up to 3 weeks. And it takes more than one mating to get the bitch pregnant. Also will the dog partner stick around to help raise the young? will offspring or in fact the parent be physically suited to survival in the wild? Im not saying its not possible, but it is difficult.

In addition to hybridisation, a much greater threat to dingoes, I feel, is the constant trapping, baiting and shooting of wild dogs. It also doesnt help that their conservation status is different in pretty much every state in Australia.

By all means the dingo is in serious danger. Certainly by the ICUN they are considered a threatened species. Although it is not known how many dingoes there are, it is extremely likely that they are low in numbers and need to be protected. Continuing as we are will not lead to good outcomes, for the dingo and for the country.

The dingo fills an extremely important role in our ecosystem. Firstly they are an apex predator which regulates the larger herbivores (such as kangaroos) which in turn is good for other species of plants and animals. Dingoes are also believed to supress fox and feral cat numbers, thus also protecting small native species. Livestock only makes up a very small amount of a dingoes diet, and they only turn to sheep and cattle in times of drought, or feed on carrion.

Finally there is an argument that even if there are hybrids, they still should be protected because they are fulfilling the role of a dingo/wild dog. Again much more research needs to be conducted in order to answer and confirm many of these statements. I believe, according to recent publications, that the research community and media is starting to shift towards promoting the dingo, and not its destruction.

I hope that helps everyone. Sorry for the lengthy response!
 
Dingoes in Victoria

A couple of years ago I remember watching a TV programme that featured some lesser known places to visit in Australia .
One of the articles was a place near Castlemaine/Chewton region where one can get up close and personal with dingoes , and learn more about them .
Can anyone confirm that this place still exists or has closed ?
 
Hi Nigel,
The place you are referring to is the Dingo Farm that was run by the late Bruce Jacobs.
The facility has been taken over, however it is closed off and there is no access to the public. There are many pure dingoes there (as well as hybrids unfortunately), many the ancestors of the dingoes you see around the zoos in Australia, so it will be a shame if they close the place to the public indefinetely.
 
i was reading about recent research that pinned the australian dingo as genetically the same as the wild dogs found from thailand right through to new guinea (singing dog).

they have been reclassified a billion times over being listed as subspecies of wolves, domestic dogs or full species.

its all pretty tricky but i suspect what happened was this:

dogs evolved from wolves BEFORE we domesticated them. but for as long as they have existed these domesticated forms have been going feral and interbreeding back with their wild counterparts resulting in much confusion to the ancestry of the species or what constitutes a true "wild dog".

dogs are not exactly wolves. they are very, very closely related, but i think they may well have split off first and by themselves. the dingo may be the closest thing left to a "wild dog" that once covered much of asia.

actually this could be rubbish. i'm not a scientist, but it was a rather clever theory i think!! :)

what i would like to read is a detailed comparison of behavioral traits of both dingos and wolves.
 
Most unscientific, I know, but I read somewhere that wolves are monogamous but dogs are promiscuous.

(What are you patrick; a wolf or a dog?) ;)
 
I don't think dogs could evolve from wolves before we domesticated them, because the characteristics that dogs show only arise from the process of domestication. The behavioural traits that dogs possess have to be selected for by humans, and there was concurrent physiological and morphological changes in dogs as well during domestication.

Dingo boy and I have lectured on dog evolution so have looked into this.
 
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