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Purebred dingoes 'a better option'
18 Jun 2004
A University of NSW researcher says that it's in farmers' best interests to conserve pure-bred dingoes. Dr Alan Wilton said that many of the problems now occurring with wild dogs stemmed from the hybridisation of domestic dogs and dingoes, with more than 80 per cent of dingoes in the eastern states now believed to be hybrids. These are larger than dingoes and have more litters, which increases their threat to stock.
Dingoes have been in the wild a lot longer than wild dogs and they tend to breed in one optimal time a year when there's food and water around.
The problems with decreasing numbers of dingoes are compounded because dingoes are effective controllers of pests such as emus, feral goats and feral pigs.
Dr Wilton said that a lot of farmers aren't interested in whether their stock losses are caused by feral dogs or dingoes, and there's not much funding to look at the implications of hybrids as an agricultural pest - just for looking at new ways of killing them.
Farm Weekly, 17/6/04.
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