Dingoes grow bigger where baits are used

A super-breed of larger, more muscular dingo has emerged thanks to decades of poisoning campaigns by Australian farmers, scientists have discovered.

An alpine dingo. Picture: Dingo Discovery Centre

A super-breed of larger, more muscular dingo has emerged thanks to decades of poisoning campaigns by Australian farmers, scientists have discovered.

Dingoes that survive the culls in remote regions grow to be bigger and stronger than those in unbaited areas, their study found. The thinning of the pack means there is less competition for food. The research, published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, is one of the first to show that vertebrates, such as dingoes, change as a result of pesticide use.

It found that dingoes which survive baiting have more food to eat, and grow up to be about 10 per cent larger. Their preferred prey of kangaroo is also more abundant because of the reduced dingo population.

“With more food in abundance, dingoes’ physical growth is less restricted,” said one of the study’s co-authors, associate professor Mathew Crowther from the University of Sydney.

The study’s lead author, Michael Letnic of the University of New South Wales, said that larger dingoes could pose an even greater threat to farm animals.

The Times