File:The last of the pure Dingoes What are dingos?

Description
Dingoes are not native to Australia but they’ve been on the island continent for at least 3,500 years and possibly even longer.

Even though they are wild animals, they are thought to be descendants of the very first animals domesticated by humans.

Until the beginning of this century, dingoes were considered to be relatively common and not in any danger. Although it had long been known that dingoes were capable of interbreeding with domestic dogs, it wasn’t until geneticists began to study wild dingo populations that the scale of that interbreeding was understood.

Almost every wild dingo population in the country is already made up of hybrid animals; however one place where pure dingoes can still be found is on Queensland’s Fraser Island.

Fraser Island contains a World Heritage area and is a popular tourist destination. It is visited by over 400,000 people each year, yet many of these visitors are quite naive about the dingo’s capabilities as a wild predator. This close proximity of dingoes and humans has led to unfortunate and sometimes tragic encounters. The challenge was to find a way to balance the survival of the animals with the need for human safety.

2015 Update

Fraser Island now has a comprehensive plan to better educate tourists about the nature of dingoes and how to behave in their presence. It has proven very successful, resulting in far fewer “incidents” and no demands for any further culling of the population. The latest research suggests that the dingo population is now relatively stable with an estimated 180 to 220 animals on the island. (c) Australian Broadcasting Corporation http://www.abc.net.au/science/