A snapshot of changes in graziers’ management and attitudes towards dingoes over 60 years

Abstract

Livestock producers and governments have managed predators to protect livestock for millennia. But in recent decades attitudes towards predators and their management have shifted from solely killing towards coexistence and even conservation. In Australia, a continent-wide survey of graziers conducted in the 1950s provides an opportunity to consider how attitudes and practices surrounding dingo management have changed over the last 60 years. We created a survey that repeated questions and themes from the 1950s study and sent this to 75 of the properties where the original survey had been completed. We received 23 complete or semicomplete responses. Ground-baiting and shooting continue to form a major focus of management on the focal properties, while fewer respondents used trapping and fencing in the current survey than in the 1950s. Ten properties had adopted either or both of two lethal methods (aerial baiting and hiring professional doggers) since the 1950s survey. Unlike the 1950s survey, three respondents used non-lethal methods only (animal husbandry or livestock guardian animals) and indicated that they support maintaining dingoes in the landscape. This change, albeit small, may suggest that attitudes towards dingoes by graziers have diversified from solely lethal control. We discuss these trends and consider the future of dingo management in Australia. In accordance with changing attitudes among some producers, we suggest that governments must now consider the diversity of approaches to managing livestock in the presence of dingoes and offer more training and support for those methods that are proven effective.