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Old 05-22-2012, 06:25 PM   #1
DeedPatmeda

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Default bringing the dingo fence down - good or bad ?
Dingoes
Biosecurity experts say the Dog Fence should be torn down and dingoes left to roam free and thrive for the good of native animals and the environment. But farmers south of the Dog Fence, which has large sections of its 2225km length in SA in disrepair, are fighting off animals as large as german shepherds as experts prepare a "defence for the dingo". Dingoes have reportedly been sighted as far south as Laura and Cambrai. They have mauled and killed sheep on stations around the Flinders Ranges and farmers want more effort made to retain the 1880s-built structure as a defence against the dingoes. *AdelaideNow
Read more .. http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/s...-1226353369175


Wild dogs will roam the city parklands and eat suburban pets if the Dog Fence in SA's Far North is torn down, a farmer representative claims. The warning follows an article in The Advertiser on Saturday in which Professor Corey Bradshaw, from Adelaide University's Environment Institute, suggests it is time to tear down the fence and let dingo populations thrive. South Australian Farmers Federation Livestock Committee member Geoff Power wants to debate those scientists who believe the Dog Fence should be dismantled. The fence stretches from Yalata in the state's west to NSW and on to Queensland. * AdelaideNow
Read more .. http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/farmer...-1226359335641
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Old 05-22-2012, 07:20 PM   #2
DeedPatmeda

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some of the comments made by the farmers rep seem over the top to me.
dingos are shy animals so "dingos in the city" doesn't seem to be a real possibility unless landowners were actively befriending them so they reduce their fear of humans. personally i can't see that happening.

the dingo fence has worked well in the past but perhaps the scientist is right and it is time to let it go ( sounds like it is already with such large areas down now) alpacas are fantastic stock guards, so it is not as if the farmers couldn't actively protect their stock by utilising them as well as other methods of control.
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Old 05-23-2012, 12:12 AM   #3
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Wild dogs will roam the city parklands and eat suburban pets if the Dog Fence in SA's Far North is torn down, a farmer representative claims.
Funny how the nut-job quotes never seem to be attributed to anyone in particular. So this "person" thinks no wild dogs live on the Adelaide side of the fence already? Does that mean these packs of marauding hounds are already roaming Victoria Square?

I guess you'd need to do a cost benefit study on the fence. How many stock does it protect as opposed to how much it costs to maintain? What impact is the fence having on the natural movement of native species?
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Old 05-23-2012, 12:22 AM   #4
GeraldCortis

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People should read the book The Dog Fence, that I mentioned in the what book are you reading thread.

yes we can tear down the dingo fence and stop living off the sheeps back which we did a long time ago. The fence is only there to protect sheep. Only cattle can be grazed north of the fence. Dingoes will even pull down calves.

Mainly the fence has killed everything else. You'll find big piles of dead emus and kangaroos etc.. You'll always see birds stuck in the fence dead. Small birds like finches can fly through but other birds get stuck and die. People may also notice that in other places fences actually kill turtles and other things
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Old 05-23-2012, 12:24 AM   #5
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How pure are these inland "dingoes"? Over in my part of the world you'd be hard pressed to find one now, got so many other genes as part of the mix.
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Old 05-23-2012, 12:35 AM   #6
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How pure are these inland "dingoes"? Over in my part of the world you'd be hard pressed to find one now, got so many other genes as part of the mix.
Proper inland dingoes are pure.. They have to be bred to be able to cross with dogs.. Dingoes only breed once per year and that usually does not naturally coincide with dogs.
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Old 05-23-2012, 01:18 AM   #7
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Proper inland dingoes are pure.. They have to be bred to be able to cross with dogs.. Dingoes only breed once per year and that usually does not naturally coincide with dogs.
Wasn't sure the purity once you moved out of NSW and Vic. Found some reliable looking info giving purity levels on a state by state basis. NT has most pure dingoes and extremely few wild dogs showing only some dingo genes. WA, SA and QLD come next, with populations in SA being mostly pure . NSW and Vic have stuff all pure dingoes.

Given interbreeding isn't straightforward, those figures make sense as there would be more wild dogs for a given area in NSW and Vic, so the two species may share genes more often (I wonder if a male wild dog is more likely to mate with a dingo bitch, than a male dingo to seek out a female domestic dog, whether wild or not).

http://www.feral.org.au/wp-content/u...2/05/WDFS6.pdf
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Old 05-23-2012, 04:41 AM   #8
Heopretg2006

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Ok, I'm going to try to put my thoughts in a logical order at this time of night

1) Yes there are definitely dingoes 'inside' the fence.
2) Dingoes do encroach on urban areas. There was a study in Qld years ago tracking their potential for disease spread which showed them moving up to and into the suburban fringe. But Adelaide CBD - no
3) Dingoes come into oestrus once a year, dogs twice. But it'd be a pretty exceptional bitch to raise 2 litters of puppies in one year! Any dingo can easily produce pups with any dog, they are both subspecies of their wolf ancestor.
4) The usual direction of mating is male dog to female dingo, because only a wild-living bitch would have the skills necessary to raise a litter in the bush.
5) Wollybutt your link didn't work for me but if that is the study I'm thinking of that came out of the Invasive Animals CRC this year that is the most up-to-date info, and looked at thousands of wild dogs.

I think that's all :P
As for the original articles, there is a lot of back-and-forth in the literature at the moment about how scientific these studies about dogs self-regulating and controlling other, smaller predators (foxes and cats) really are. The original work on this was very specific about the type of habitat this was relevant to, but I think some people have become a bit too wedded to the idea as a catch-all solution and have been overstating how advanced the research in this area really is. I would hate to see anything too drastic happen until our understanding of these ecological processes have matured a bit
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Old 05-23-2012, 05:26 AM   #9
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Woollybutt's link works fine downloading now.
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Old 05-23-2012, 05:40 AM   #10
Heopretg2006

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Ah yep, downloading now for me too. Could've been my net connection, it's being temperamental tonight. That was the study I was thinking of, quite a thorough one I thought.

Sorry about the nerd explosion above!
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