Dingos: pests or endangered wildlife?

In the absence of Thylacines and Tasmanian Devios from the mainland, the Dingo is the top mammalian predator. In its absence feral cats and Red Foxes would be even more of a menace to Australia's remaining indigenous wildlife.
 
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DavidBrown said:
Interesting article on dingos and whether they are considered to be pests or endangered wildlife: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/s...of-the-dingo-evolves.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
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Pure Dingos are defiantly endangered, but by wild dogs breeding with them. Over most of Australia so called Dingos now come in many colours, as there are very few pure ones left. I know of one genetic study in South East Qld, where all wild dogs trapped were DNA tested. Out of about 50 wild dogs, many of which looked like Dingos only one tested close to pure.
I have seen heaps of photos of wild dogs taken by traicams and there are some very interesting coloured dogs, but only about 20% would be dingo coloured, but that does not mean they are pure.
The bloke who took the photos of the hog deer at the trough I out up last week, has got some very good photos of pure looking Dingos from one area though. He even got photos of the parents and 3 pups, although nearby he got a picture of a black and white dog which looks like a Border Collie.
All Dingo DNA will not be lost though, as wild dogs seem only to be able to survive and successfully reproduce if they have some Dingo in them. Dogs without Dingo in them from anecdotal evidence dont seem able to raise pups in the wild.

Away from agricultural land wild dogs can be beneficial. They, like dogs will chase and kill foxes, which helps some native animals. The wild dogs themselves though do kill a lot of native animals. One of their favourites seems to be the Echidna, and every wild dog den I have seen has many Echidna skins around it.
 
There are only an estimated 150 wild pure alpine dingoes in Australia. The chamberlain woman is the one who should be shot. I have no idea wether or not a dingo took the baby but what kind of stupid woman leaves a baby alone in that environment anyway.

As for increased attacks on humans, I find it laughable that the dingo cops the blame for those attacks. Animals aren't dangerous, stupid people are. Th Dingo has copped the blame for taking livestock and attacking people for too long. We choose to try and attract them to camps with food, we try and get them as close as possible and we poison adults that woud NEVER eat livestock before they have the opportunity to teach their pups how to hunt foxes, cats and rabbits. The pups don't know how to kill and are then left with no real option but to take livestock. As dingo numbers decrease further expect to see more cats, more foxes and more rabbits, all of these are actually the dingoes favourite food.

There are more Wild Sumatran Tigers than pure Alpine Dingoes.

There are now 33,000,000 feral cats in Australia, that works out to be atleast 12 BILLION native animals that are killed by cats every year in Australia and we want to destroy the only thing that actively hunts cats.
 
IanRRobinson said:
In the absence of Thylacines and Tasmanian Devios from the mainland, the Dingo is the top mammalian predator. In its absence feral cars and Red Foxes would be even more of a menace to Australia's remaining indigenous wildlife.
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I agree they do a good job on foxes, but cats don't seem effected. I suspect the cats climbing ability helps them avoid being eaten.
 
I have just built a huge dingo enclosure. My fence is 7 feet high with a one foot inhang and the only reason my oldest female can't climb out is because of the barbs around the top. I call her the possum cat becuase she is fluffly like a possum but acts alot more like a cat than a dog. I have been very shocked by just how agile an animal they are. They love to climb and it's actually recommended that there are logs and trees in dingo enclosures as they like to be up high and love to climb. When I kept them inside I was constantly chasing her off the benches and pushing her off the arm rests of the lounge and believe it or not they also lov e to walk along and even sleep on the window sill.
 
Monty said:
Pure Dingos are defiantly endangered, but by wild dogs breeding with them. Over most of Australia so called Dingos now come in many colours, as there are very few pure ones left. I know of one genetic study in South East Qld, where all wild dogs trapped were DNA tested. Out of about 50 wild dogs, many of which looked like Dingos only one tested close to pure.
I have seen heaps of photos of wild dogs taken by traicams and there are some very interesting coloured dogs, but only about 20% would be dingo coloured, but that does not mean they are pure.
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without disputing that pure dingos are very rare nowadays, colouration is no indicator of purity. Even at first European contact dingos were recorded as being various colours, including black and white. Variation in colour doesn't necessarily come from interbreeding with European dogs.
 
Wolves in the wild can be black, white or anything in between, so variability in 'pure' [ie pre-European settlement] Dingos is not really surprising.
 
Sandy, black & tan and white are the three colours they can be. They also should have a white tip on the tail, however my youngest bitch only has four white hairs on hers. Dingos have a larger hook at the back of their jaw and also have the ability to look along their own spine either sideways or by just turning their head upside down. Their jaws are the widest part of their body, anything their head can get through so can the rest of their body. the sternum also never should be below the elbow and very few vital organs sit outside the rib cage, giving them the very skinny and underfed appearance. when they sit their entire body is protected by a combination of the large sternum and their legs protect the lower half, this is believed to be to protect them from a roo kick. They are a very unique animal that deserves protecting. however i think it will be too late by the time we realise.
 
Interesting about white being a pure bred colour. The one that tested pure in the genetic study I mentioned in Southern Queensland was white. Most the others were Sandy coloured and tested as Xbreds.
 
Yeah i have seen quite a few sandy ones that are xbreds to. Only 1% of pure dingoes are white and they believe they are naturally from areas surrounding salt lakes, not too sure on the accuracy of that though. I have been trying to get a white pup for three years. Hopefully this season.
 
Three at the moment. one supplied by a member of this forum and the other two from the dingo discovery centre in victoria. All sandy. im hoping to add a black and tan as well as a white over the next two breeding seasons.
 
A recent article that I read in a wildlife magazine specu;ates that there may be more purebred dingos on Fraser Island than previously thought. Apperenty one newly identified female was tagged and it was discovered that she never went near human habitations or the beaches and avoided humans whenever they were near. The reasoning goes that if one previously unknown animal avoids humans there may be many more.
Also there is a theory that the prescence of dingos on Fraser keeps the feral cat population down which would then explain the abundance of birds and ground dwelling mammels on the island.
 
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