Dingoes exist in a strange kind of conservation limbo...

In modern Australia, dingoes exist in a strange kind of conservation limbo. Depending on whom you ask or which law you consult, they may be described as native or introduced, as pestiferous vermin or an integral part of the country's ecosystem. In the Northern Territory, dingoes have been protected for some time, and in a controversial move, the state of Victoria listed dingoes as a threatened species. In most of the other states, rural landowners are legally required to kill dingoes on their property. Even in national parks, where the conservation benefits of dingoes are beginning to be recognized, officials set out poison bait in large buffer zones to keep dingoes from straying onto neighboring grazing lands. Under the Threatened Species Conservation Act, any animal that inhabited Australia in 1788, when the first British colony was established, is eligible for protection. The dingo was nominated for protection as a threatened species in New South Wales more than a decade ago, but the state government never acted on that petition. Now, however, the state has accepted a separate petition that defines hybridization between wild domestic dogs and dingoes as a “key threatening process.” The finding is likely to lead to a continuation of the state's long-standing practice of air-dropping poisoned baits across much of the landscape. The nomination effectively declares that there are few, if any, dingoes in NSW [New South Wales], due to interbreeding between dingoes and feral dogs. For some biologists, the prospect of genetic pollution from free-roaming domestic dogs is a major threat facing “pure” dingoes. For others, the issue is overblown, too often used as a justification for mass predator-control campaigns. Seventy percent of the animals in the wild look and act like dingoes, but if you call them wild dogs you can throw poison out the back of a helicopter and that's fine. I see the hybridization problem as unimportant compared with the need to protect Australia's last top predator. The best way to overcome it is just to leave them alone, stop baiting them. Gradually the domestic dog genes will die out out through the process of evolution. Dingoes are going to be selected for over domestic dogs because they can survive better in the wild.