Dingoes at the Doorstep: Home Range Sizes and Activity Patterns of Dingoes and Other Wild Dogs around Urban Areas of North-Eastern Australia

• Published in: Animals
• Main Authors: Alice T. McNeill, Luke K. -P. Leung, Mark S. Goullet, Matthew N. Gentle, Benjamin L. Allen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2016
• Subjects: adaptive kernel; Canis lupus dingo; habitat use; human–carnivore conflict; predator management; stray dog; urban ecology; Veterinary medicine; SF600-1100; Zoology; QL1-991; Canis lupus
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/ani6080048; https://doaj.org/article/e111963675404ddebe5a00bbc2bc2f1d

Top-predators around the world are becoming increasingly intertwined with humans, sometimes causing conflict and increasing safety risks in urban areas. In Australia, dingoes and dingo×domesticdoghybridsarecommoninmanyurbanareas,andposeavarietyofhumanhealth and safety risks. However, data on urban dingo ecology is scant. We GPS-collared 37 dingoes in north-easternAustraliaandcontinuouslymonitoredthemeach30minfor11–394days. Mostdingoes were nocturnal, with an overall mean home range size of 17.47 km2. Overall mean daily distance travelled was 6.86 km/day. At all times dingoes were within 1000 m of houses and buildings. Home ranges appeared to be constrained to patches of suitable vegetation fragments within and around human habitation. These data can be used to reallocate dingo management effort towards mitigating actual conflicts between humans and dingoes in urban areas.