Featured Letter

Amanda Burdon’s article about dingoes (AG 136) reminds me of similar issues we have faced in western USA over wolves. Our state encourages ranchers to take non-lethal steps (such as range riders and guard dogs) to protect livestock. Conservation groups help pay for these measures, which have been largely successful. The evidence is incomplete, but wolves also seem more likely to prey on livestock when the hierarchy of their pack is disrupted by the loss of an alpha member. Wolf-dog hybrids, which seem to lack something in pack discipline, are also harder on livestock. On the other hand, the evidence is very clear that wolves help biodiversity by keeping second-tier predators, such as coyotes and raccoons, in check, and keeping herbivores such as deer and elk on the move, so that they don’t hang around the streams and denude the riparian areas.

Having also lived in the state of Queensland, I recognise the big differences between US and Australian landscapes, but I suspect that apex predators such as the wolf and dingo behave much the same everywhere.