Victoria protects the Dingo
Australia's Dingo (Canis lupus dingo) has for many years been hunted, trapped and poisoned across the country.
Pure-bred dingos are now rare. Blood lines are diluted through breeding with domestic dogs and the destructive behaviour of cross-bred animals adds to the bad reputation of the dingo itself. Eighty percent of the dingoes that remain in Victoria are hybrids, and pure dingoes exist in only two remote, mountainous areas.
Ironically, many people argue that the dingo has a role in protecting Australian wildlife. There are many anecdotal reports of thriving populations of vulnerable species like wallabies and malleefowl coexisting with dingos. On the other hand, those same species have usually disappeared from areas where dingos no longer exist.
It is believed that in intact family groups dingos are sustainable hunters - they hunt cooperatively, take what they need, and keep their territory free of other predators like foxes and feral cats who may compete with them for food. Both wildlife and live stock suffer when dingo families have been fragmented and hunt as individuals, or where pack of wild dogs rampage.
The organisation Dingo CARE Network Inc. has been at the forefront of the campaign to have the important role of the dingo in the Australian environment recognised, and to have the species listed as threatened.
Now, in a national first, the Victoria Department of Sustainability and Environment has declared the dingo a threatened species and will come up with an action plan to save them. New research says that the animal is on the brink of extinction with fewer than 100 pure dingoes left in the state's wilderness.
In an effort to placate land owners, Victorian Environment Minister Gavin Jennings says the listing won't interfere with ground baiting being used to control wild dogs. He also says farmers can shoot dingoes if they enter their property and threaten livestock.
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