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By Les Scammell, October 10, 2007 10:34 am

The Australian Dingo is under threat of extinction. At present there are no plans to help conserve this Australian icon. Why? Perhaps because in the true sense the dingo is not a native species having been introduced some 4-5000 years ago. I don’t know how long a species needs to live in a region to be considered a native but the Australian dingo no longer resembles any of its cousins in the Asian region.

One reason for the lack of protection for the dingo is its reputation and the perceived risk to humans and livestock. Its interesting that over the last two hundred years there have been a massive four attacks on humans. Yes – just four. Meanwhile there are around 14000 domestic dog attacks on humans – per year.

Another reason for the lack of protection for dingoes are the attacks on livestock. However, dingoes, being canine, can and do breed with domestic dogs. These cross breeds are the animals that hunt in packs and destroy livestock. By all means, lets hunt and eradicate these animals – they are certainly not native and they do destroy both livestock and native fauna.

The dingo itself is a fairly solitary animal. When it does hunt in packs it is generally only with its own family, the female and her pups from the last year or two. The dingo is actually quite a shy animal and in the wild will often leave an area rather than confront a human. There are a couple of exceptions to this.

One of these exceptions is an area known as Frazer Island. This island has had quite a checkered past having seen many protests over sand mining in the past. It is now a national park and permits are required to visit. Despite the permits, and having access limited to guided tours or four wheel driver vehicles, the island is frequented by thousands of visitors every year. The last couple of dingo attacks have occurred on Frazer Island. Why? The visitors treat the dingoes like pets and offer them food and of course try to pet them. It had reached a point where visitors where being approached by the dingoes for food. If none was offered, well they would help themselves. This caused two problems, first the reliance on ‘human provided food’ and not their own hunting, and secondly, with so much food available, huge population growth. The feeding of dingoes is now banned and some order is starting to return. Eventually population numbers will fall as they have to hunt for their own food.

There is now talk of putting up dingo fences at picnic grounds to protect the visitors from the dingoes. After all, there have been so many attacks on humans by these animals (four in two hundred years).

The dingo is a necessary animal in Australia’s ecosystem. It is extremely effective in controlling feral cats, foxes and rabbits (none are native). It provides a balance in the system being the largest of the few hunting native animals on this continent.

As to the dingo fence, the dingoes need the protection, not the humans! If they decide to put up a fence it needs to be called a human fence – to protect the dingoes from our follies.