Dingoes at the Doorstep: Home Range Sizes and Activity Patterns of Dingoes and Other Wild Dogs around Urban Areas of North-Eastern Australia.

Alice Mcneill,Benjamin Allen,Mark Goullet,Luke Leung,Matthew Gentle

doi:10.3390/ani6080048

Abstract

Simple summaryConflicts with dingoes and other wild dogs are becoming increasingly common in and around urban areas of Australia. A lack of basic information about wild dog movement ecology hampers efficient planning and allocation of resources to mitigate human–wild dog conflicts. We captured, collared and released 37 wild dogs in urban areas of north-eastern Australia to investigate their movement ecology. In general, wild dogs occupied small fragments of bushland within an urban matrix, were active at all times of the day, and lived within a few hundred meters of houses and humans at all times. We conclude that wild dog management strategies in urban areas should focus on the mitigation of impacts at the individual or group level, and not population-level reductions in numbers.Top-predators around the world are becoming increasingly intertwined with humans, sometimes causing conflict and increasing safety risks in urban areas. In Australia, dingoes and dingo × domestic dog hybrids are common in many urban areas, and pose a variety of human health and safety risks. However, data on urban dingo ecology is scant. We GPS-collared 37 dingoes in north-eastern Australia and continuously monitored them each 30 min for 11–394 days. Most dingoes were nocturnal, with an overall mean home range size of 17.47 km2. Overall mean daily distance travelled was 6.86 km/day. At all times dingoes were within 1000 m of houses and buildings. Home ranges appeared to be constrained to patches of suitable vegetation fragments within and around human habitation. These data can be used to reallocate dingo management effort towards mitigating actual conflicts between humans and dingoes in urban areas.

Highlights

Predators are influential components of all natural ecosystems, including highly modified ecosystems characteristic of urban areas
A greater understanding of urban predator ecology is important for mitigating human-wildlife conflicts and identifying predator traits or resource requirements that may facilitate improved predator management
Across Australia, feral cats are common in urban areas [10], as are dingoes or dingo × domestic dog hybrids, collectively referred to as ‘wild dogs’ [11,12]

Summary

Introduction

Predators are influential components of all natural ecosystems, including highly modified ecosystems characteristic of urban areas. Across Australia, feral cats are common in urban areas [10], as are dingoes or dingo × domestic dog hybrids, collectively referred to as ‘wild dogs’ [11,12]. Suggested taxonomic nomenclature for Australian wild dogs includes Canis lupus dingo, Canis lupus familiaris, Canis familiaris dingo, Canis dingo and Canis familiaris, which are each in common and current usage [13]. Regardless of their debated taxonomic name, the study animals we refer to here are what most people would consider to be ‘dingoes’, irrespective of their genotype or phylogeny (see [11]). Our study animals are not what most people in Australia would consider feral or stray dogs

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion