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Dingoes are social animals...
Where conditions are favourable, they form stable packs that maintain distinct territories that overlap little with neighbouring packs. However, regional variations are seen, reflecting the flexible nature of dingo social structure. This flexibility is not surprising in view of the wide variety of habitats, prey species, climatic conditions and the levels of human exploitation encountered across this country.
Specialisation on larger prey such as kangaroos and wallabies favours increasing sociality and the formation of larger groups.
The primary function of dingo packs is to defend hunting areas and other essential resources.
As an example, in the north-west of Western Australia, where kangaroos are the main prey and natural water is widely distributed the dingoes are organised into stable packs occupying discrete territories that overlap little with neighbouring packs. Packs comprise of a dominent male and female (alpha) and their offspring of various ages. Territory boundaries are stable and between pack encounters are rare.
Packs vary in size and range anything from 3-12 individuals, with the smaller packs tending to occupying the poorer areas and larger ranges.
Pack members cooperate to hunt prey and take part in communal activities such as feeding, resting and raising pups.
Lone dingoes are sometimes seen; they have no pack affiliation, occupy larger ranges that overlap the mosaic of pack territories and avoid encounters with packs. They are usually seeking a mate and a vacant area in which to settle.
In a more fluid situation, in the northern tropical Territory stable packs occupy territories, but alter where and what they hunt according to season and prey availability.
In the arid pastoral regions of central Australia most dingoes are seen alone, although they are loosely bonded in small groups sharing a common living area.
A similar pattern also on the Nullabor. Here the dingoes prey mostly on rabbits. Water is sparse and shared by other groups.
Groupings of dingoes are most common during the months leading up to mating, during the raising of pups, and when dingoes are feeding on larger prey like the kangaroo.
These are just examples of a couple of locations to give you an idea on pack structures, taking into account, water and the seasons menu....

 

Pack Structures:

This diagram depicts a model of how dingoes interact with other species


The dingo has had a bad rap in Australia,for far too long!
Research on its benefits for native ecosystems has given the dingo plenty to howl about.
Last year a report on Ninian Stewart-Moore and his wife Ann, who run a 46,500 hectare sheep and cattle station in north-west QLD.
Their decision to purchase 24 Italian Maremma guardian dogs has transformed their lives.
They used to lose up to 10 sheep a night to dingoes and were in a constant state of anxiety about whether to keep running sheep at all. Now dingoes wouldn't take more than 10 sheep a year.
They have gone from thinking the only good dingo is a dead one, to feeling quite happy about living alongside them.
The guardian dogs’ stunning success with the flock of 12,000 sheep demonstrates that Maremma's can be effective dingo deterrents at scale in the pastoral zone. It also means fewer dingoes will be exterminated.
This is good news for Australia's small mammals, as scientific research is revealing that dingoes are playing a vital role in their conservation.
Thirty Australian mammal species have gone extinct in the last 200 years, which is almost half of all mammal extinctions world wide.
Introduced foxes and cats are largely to blame. Dingoes naturally kept them in check but once dingoes were removed from large tracts of the country these feral predators wreaked havoc in the landscape.
In a study published in 2007,1 Professor Chris Johnson from James Cook University showed that the presence of dingoes is the most powerful
showed that the presence of dingoes is the predictor of the survival of ground-dwelling marsupials across Australia.
The loss of the Mala (rufous harewallaby) from mainland Australia is a graphic example.
In 1987 there were two remaining populations. Both were in the Tanami Desert where dingoes were plentiful. As dingoes are known to eat the occasional Mala, the Wildlife Commission baited the dingoes to give the Mala a better chance.
Within a fortnight a fox moved into one of the population zones and scoffed the lot. The tragedy was observed by a PhD student who was in the field at the time. The disappearance of the second population soon followed.
In the central deserts, dingoes are important regulators of feral foxes and cats. 
1 Johnson C, Isaac J and Fisher D (2007) Rarity of a top predator triggers continent-wide collapse of mammal prey: dingoes and marsupials
in Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274, 341–346.
Surely then this is enough evidence to allow the dingo freedom and protection!!!

 

Progress:

It's so important for this information to be listened to and taken into consideration!

There is a compelling list of anecdotal evidence in favour of the dingo’, but it is only in the last few years that scientific data to demonstrate this has started to be collected. Unlike the domestic dog that breeds twice annually, the dingo breeds only once a year and howls rather than barks. Wild domestic dogs have, however, inter-bred with dingoes. Dingoes are classified as wild dogs and regarded as pests in all states. They are protected in the Northern Territory and late two years ago the Victorian Government announced it would declare the dingo a threatened species, but landholders would still be free to kill it on their own land. Each year $6.5 million is spent on poisoning, trapping, shooting or fencing wild dogs because of the damage they do to livestock. The persecution of the dingo and hybridisation with wild dogs means purebred dingo populations are diminishing in large parts of southern Australia. The endangered dusky hopping mouse, in the remote sand dunes of the Strezleki Desert, is one of those species benefiting from the dingo’s presence. In a study in press in the Journal of Conservation , Dr Mike Letnic from the University of Sydney has found the threatened mouse does better where dingoes are active. If dingoes are absent, foxes move in and mouse numbers decline. Dr Letnic’s project took him from the Great Australian Bight to Coopers Creek in south-west Queensland on both sides of the dingo barrier fence. He found clear evidence that dingoes are beneficial. ‘Where dingoes were active he found less kangaroos, more grass, less foxes and more small mammals. Where dingoes were missing he saw more kangaroos, less grass, more foxes and less small mammals.’ The next step is to understand the mechanisms behind how dingoes interact with the system and benefit native species. While kangaroo numbers are reduced by dingo predation, it suggests the mere presence of the predator may have a greater effect. If kangaroos are more cautious because of dingoes, their access to food resources is diminished and they’ll be less productive. Less grazing pressure and more grass mean more energy for small native animals. Grasses will have a greater chance to set seed, with flow-on effects for grain eating mammals, insects, birds and reptiles. The Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) is researching dingo interactions on nine of its reserves. It is looking at the interactions between dingoes and cats rather than foxes on its northern properties. ‘Results are fairly preliminary,’ says National Conservation and ‘I think we’ll find that dingoes are generally good for native fauna and diversity in the arid and semi-arid regions and in the rangelands The dingo is a highly intelligent animal, like the wolf, and when in stable packs, hunts cooperatively in a sophisticated manner. But baiting with 1080 poison by farmers and land managers can disrupt a pack’s stability and allow young rogue males to move in and do far worse damage to livestock. Professor Johnson and his team have an Australian Research Council grant which is allowing them to test this and other questions by comparing cattle properties that do and do not bait. To help resolve the sheep producer’s problem with dingoes, they are also investigating the effectiveness of livestock guardian dogs under Australian conditions.

 

When they shoot and trap dingoes, do they really know what they are doing?

Along with koalas and kangaroo's, the dingo is one of Australia's most recognisable and iconic species, and yet it suffers from an identity crises that threatens its continued survival in the wild.

As a top predator, the dingo is not alone in being threatened with extinction. Around the world, species such as wolves, mountain lions, tigers and bears are fighting for survival and in danger of extinction for all the same reasons-man made!

In rural Australia, dingoes are considered the number one pest species due to their attacks on livestock. On Fraser Island because of their potential threat to human safety. As a result they are intensively controlled through 1080 poisoning, trapping and shooting.

But along with myself and others we consider the dingo to be our best chance at saving many native threatened and endangered species from extinction. We must argue for the continued preservation of dingoes and, see that the dingo be reintroduced into some areas and protected!

Dingoes play a critical role in maintaining the health of our ecosystems. They make ecosystems more resistant to the negative impacts of invasive species and climate change.

The most critical effects dingoes have on the Australian landscape are in reducing populations of both overabundant herbivores (such as kangaroos) and introduced smaller predators, specifically cats and foxes. Unchecked kangaroo numbers can devastate habitats, in some cases leading to near complete removal of vegetation and severe erosian. These effects, combined with those of cats and foxes, place huge pressure on our native biodiversity.

Where dingoes are left alone and in reasonable numbers, they are able to reduce cat and fox numbers substantially.

The dingo was recently identified as a threatened species by the Victorian government (partly due to hybridisation with feral domestic dogs or wild dogs.) But at the same time the government aerialbaits and ground baits with 1080 poison to control wild dogs.

Yes dingoes do on occassion kill and eat livestock, but at the same time they also kill millions of kangaroos, feral pigs, goats and rabbits annually. This effect indirectly benefits sheep and cattle by reducing competition for food, and ultimately benefits graziers hip pockets.

The services provided by dingoes come for free, as opposed to the costly pest control and conservation interventions.

We can protect stock using livestock guardian animals (such as Maremma dogs), and still maintain dingoes in the landscape to control the unwanted impacts of cats, foxes and overabundant herbivores.

The beautiful dingo


Did I mention she's beautiful?  Ahhh but did I say HOW beautiful? and not just aesthetically pleasing, beautiful heart, beautiful mind and beautiful soul too. Just totally beautiful

Choosing to use the dingo...

Choosing to use the dingo as the saviour of Australia’s ecology is an idea that would be resisted by the majority of people. This is purely because the majority of people are misinformed and uneducated about how crucially important the dingo is to biodiversity. 
Sadly the mainstream view on the dingo is negatively propagated by the media that is controlled by the government and corporations. As the media has the ability to influence the minds of the masses they are able to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent. Unfortunately for the dingo (ecology’s best friend) they are the innocent native and beneficial animal that has been portrayed negatively by the media. The reason for this is that the government and corporations care more about the profit that they can make than they do about Australia’s sustainability and its ecology. For the dingo, this is why it has been persecuted. Fortunately, engineering and science has recently started transitioning away from the primitive and unsustainable practices (such as fossil fuels) and ideologies. 
Fortunately for the endangered dingo, its vital role in balancing the ecology has recently been recognised. 
From being almost driven to extinction to now having dingo conservation sanctuaries dedicated to its preservation, the dingo holds the key to sustainably balancing the Australian ecology. In recent years many studies have been directed towards the importance of the dingo and its key role in the outback. Educated people are able to understand the importance of the dingo. The best way to protect Australia’s ecology is to educate the people about the importance the dingo has to the environment before it’s too late.
~Gary Taylor Photography~

 

Gestation of the dingo lasts between 61-69 days (average 63 days). They become visibly pregnant around 10 days before the birth. Around this time, is when the female selects a suitable den in which to whelp and raise her young. Den sites have been found in hollow logs, rock shelters, the base of large trees, under large tussocks of spinifex grass and in enlarged rabbit warrens.
The female spends time cleaning and enlarging the den before the birth.
As the pups get older they rotate the litters around different den sites to ensure that the pups have enough prey to hunt in the immediate area.
Dingo pups usually first venture out from their natal den at three weeks of age. Then by around eight weeks, the natal den is abandoned, and pups occupy various rendezvous dens until fully weaned at 8 to 10 weeks. Pups usually roam by themselves within 3 km of these dens, but are accompanied by adults on longer treks. Both the male and female pack members help the mother introduce the pups to whole food (9 to 12 weeks), usually by gorging on a kill then returning to the den to regurgitate food to the pups. The mother waters the pups by regurgitation, as well. Pups become independent at 3-4 months. Then progressively at the age of between 9 weeks and 20 weeks the pups accompany the adults on longer journeys. By 4 months, pups are less reliant upon intensive parental care for their immediate survival...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trapping Dingoes For Research:

  • Trapping dingoes for research: Our scientists trap dingoes to obtain biological samples or to fit them with devices such as tracking collars or identification tags. Leg hold trapping is the most commonly used method for these purposes. There are other techniques available like cage traps but dingoes are simply too clever to be caught this way. They say if used responsibly by experienced operators, leg- hold taps can generally be used without causing long term injury. However, poorly set up traps and inexperienced animal handling are a sure way to cause injury to a dingo, and a dingo is more likely to sustain an injury the longer it stays trapped. Leg-hold traps used in research are fitted with rubber pads, which cushion the dingoes leg against the steel jaws and decrease the likelihood of injury and stress. Despite rubber padding, dingoes can still sustain injuries from leg-hold traps. Once dingoes are trapped they may be sedated. They are usually held on a restraint board with straps fitted over their neck, chest and hindquarters to reduce the risk that they will be injured if they struggle, or that the researchers will be bitten by a struggling dingo. When the dingo has been caught it may be processed to collect information such as mass and body measurements, tissue and blood samples may be taken, microchips injected or ear tags fitted for future identification, and if they are to be monitored for a tracking study a GPS collar will be fitted. Data collected using GPS can be recorded at short term intervals throughout the day and night. Locations are stored in a memory chip in the collar and can be retrieved by recovering the collar. Many GPS collars have drop-off devices with a release mechanism set for a predetermined time or when on command by the researcher via a remote signal, enabling retrieval of the collar and freeing the dingo from its encumbrance...

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     TRACKING COLLARS: What about tracking collars? It is widely considered by experts that no surveillance method should be used which is likely to interfere with the animals’ ability to function naturally but we believe these tracking collars will disrupt normal dingo behaviour and cause instability amongst the packs. Some animals may be ostracized or even killed by other members of the group, the collars will also interfere with normal foraging habits, and with the denning and whelping process. In this day and age of microsizing where we can fit transmitters to frogs, dingoes should not have to wear collars that were in fact designed for bears and large animals like cougars. Clearly these collars are cumbersome and ugly. Do we want to see wild dingoes on Fraser Island or our mainland with collars around their necks?

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