Dingoes 'could help rare species'

bbc ^ | 17 June 2009 | Richard Black

[JoeProBono]

Re-introducing dingoes across tracts of Australia could have benefits for wildlife and possibly cattle farmers. Researchers found that dingoes suppress populations of kangaroos and red foxes, which are big consumers of vegetation and small mammals respectively. Writing in the Royal Society's journal Proceedings B, they say the benefits of dingoes outweigh concerns over their presence as an "alien predator".

The wild dogs were brought to Australia about 5,000 years ago. Their appetite for sheep means they have been expelled from large swathes of the country, notably the productive farmlands of New South Wales and Victoria, where a "dingo fence" more than 5,000km long has been erected to keep the predators out.

[JoeProBono]

[La Lydia]

I luuurrrve the Larson cartoon.

[JRios1968]

Re-introducing dingoes across tracts of Australia could have benefits for wildlife and possibly cattle farmers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghCTZF61ey0

[dragonblustar]

D-I-N-G-O, D-I-N-G-O, D-I-N-G-O and Dingo was her name -o!

[Sundog]

Wolves would work. There’s an excess in Wyoming / Montana / Idaho right now.

[JoeProBono]

[nickcarraway]

I am so sick of the Dingo lobby controlling our lives!

[353FMG]

“The wild dogs were brought to Australia about 5,000 years ago.”

.
Even after 5000 years they’re still considered alien predators?

[JoeProBono]

[MissouriConservative]

bump

[Durus]

Who brought Dingos to Australia in 2991bc and how do we know that?

[billygoatgruff]

I have a Red-Heeler/Queensland (cattle dog) and they were bred from dingos.

Smart as the day is long, I tell ya!

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Bill did, and he still has his “Missing: Dingo” poster up in Perth.

[a fool in paradise]

Their appetite for sheep means they have been expelled from large swathes of the country, notably the productive farmlands of New South Wales and Victoria, where a "dingo fence" more than 5,000km long has been erected to keep the predators out.

5,000km long. Fences keep things out? Make land safer?

No. Not buying it. < /sarc >

[JoeProBono]

[a fool in paradise]

Since the dingos were BROUGHT to Australia against their will, when will they get reparations?

[CommerceComet]

I know that some cyrpto-zoologists believe that a small population of Tasmanian Tigers still exists in New South Wales (along with Tasmania). Their opinion is shared (or at least thought to be possible) by some more legitimate authorities as well. What effect would the reintroduction of dingoes in NSW have on the population of the truly indigenous predator of the area if some Tasmanian Tigers did survive?

As I stated before, I think that the Tasmanian Tiger is the most likely crypto-species to be proven to exist by legitimate science. Personally, I think it is only a matter of time before irrefutable physical evidence of the current existence of the thylacine is discovered.

[JoeProBono]

[billygoatgruff]

If Jesse Jackson can get a cut of it, he’ll be an activist for their cause.

[Durus]

We could use a fence like that down south.