Must preserve dingo as species

THE Australian dingo, Canis familiaris, is an ancient breed of domestic dog originally derived from the Gray wolf Canis lupis and arrived here between 5000 to 12,000 years ago.

They are considered a native species and a class-two pest at the same time by the government.

Like many canid predators worldwide, they have been persecuted because of their tendency to kill domestic livestock.

The dingo has been relentlessly shot, trapped and poisoned since European settlement and yet it has survived, but it now faces it’s greatest extinction threat, extinction by genetic stealth.

Hybridisation with the growing populations of wild domestic dogs is rapidly diluting their unique genetic code.

At least 80% of east coast mainland dingoes are now hybrids.

Should the dingo be conserved and if so, how do we do it?

With the ever-growing population of wild living dogs, the dingo could well be extinct by the end of the century.

My personal view is that Australia’s only native dog should be preserved for its intrinsic value as a species, as should all species.

Perhaps the only way to do this is to preserve dingo populations on offshore islands such as Fraser Island where their gene pool is geographically isolated from the domestic dog.

Yes I can hear the lamentations of the sheep farmers as they read this, but let me remind you of the persecution of the Thylacine because it dared to prey on sheep.

Historical facts actually showed that more sheep were killed in Tasmania by wild dogs and hungry poachers than by Tasmanian Tigers.

I have just returned from 12 days of field research on a huge cattle property in the Strzelecki desert inhabited by an estimated 5000 dingoes.

Even though the research indicates that dingoes are a low threat to fetal/calf loss, the prevailing attitude of dingo eradication persists.

One interesting image I caught with a remote sensing camera was a dingo eating another dingo and this behaviour was a function of extreme drought and diminished prey populations.

It really is a dog-eat-dog world after all.

GEOFF CASTLE, Toowoomba