Dingoes Protect Smaller Native Animals
Australian Wild Dogs Deter Feral Animals Preying on Small Creatures
Jun 18, 2009
Dingoes (Canis lupus dingo) are Australia’s wild dogs, believed to have been on the continent for nearly 4,000 years. They have features in common with both wolves and modern dogs, and are regarded as more or less unchanged descendants of an early ancestor of modern dogs..
Because they are top order predators, dingoes have a bad reputation with graziers, who hunt or poison the animals to protect their sheep and cattle. Dingoes eat a wide range of animals, but prefer larger animals such as kangaroos.
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Recently, researchers have shown that dingoes are actually protecting smaller native animals, by attacking and killing feral introduced animals that prey on smaller animals such as bettongs or the endangered desert rodent, the dusky hopping mouse.
Dr Mike Letnic from the University of Sydney School of Biological Science made the discovery when studying the plight of the dusky hopping mouse. His research showed that dingoes, despite their reputation for taking livestock, actually have a positive effect on the ecosystem.
His research built on observations by Professor Chris Johnson of James Cook University, Queensland that native rufous bettongs are able to thrive when dingoes are present.
Dr Letnic and his team undertook surveys of the numbers of dusky hopping mice, dingoes, red foxes and feral cats on either side of the dingo fence in the remote Strzelecki Desert.
Where dingoes had been exterminated, Dr Letnic found increased abundances of introduced red foxes and herbivores, while small native mammals and grasses were lost.
Their research, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows that by keeping down the numbers of feral foxes, goats, and cats, dingoes were actually protecting the smaller animals.
“It was found that this positive effect results from the dingo’s suppressing of the numbers of introduced red foxes, which are know to predate on the dusky hopping mouse,” said Dr Letnic. “In Australia, dingoes appear to be capable of structuring arid ecosystems at large spatial scales by regulating populations of kangaroos, emus and red foxes.”
Dingoes Suppressing Feral Predators Protects Small Natives
Dingoes do eat some of the smaller animals, Dr Letnic admitted, but said they preferred larger prey, which was why they attacked foxes as well as kangaroos and emus.
“In the Strzelecki Desert both dingoes and foxes mainly eat rabbits, but foxes are more likely to supplement their diets with smaller species like the dusky hopping mouse, while dingoes are more likely to eat kangaroos," he said
“Dingoes will prey on smaller species but they prefer to eat larger species, hence their impacts tend to be greater on larger species.”
He said the dingoes were also killing or scaring off feral cats which eat small native animals and birds, but referred mainly to their effect on foxes.
Dingoes Kill Introduced Red Foxes or Scare Them Away
While it was unclear how long it would take for a dingo population to eradicate or severely reduce the red foxes in an area, he said it would not take many dingoes to change the balance.
“It is likely that relatively few dingoes can have a big impact on foxes. This is because dingoes will kill foxes. Dingoes are also likely to affect how foxes behave. This is because foxes will change their behaviour to avoid encountering dingoes,” he said.
"Dingoes appear to suppress the impacts of red foxes, so we predict that maintaining or reintroducing dingo populations would benefit threatened native mammals across more than two million square kilometres of Australia."
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