Insects for breakfast and whales for dinner: the diet and body condition of dingoes on Fraser Island (K’gari)
Top-predators play stabilising roles in island food webs, including Fraser Island, Australia. Subsidising generalist predators with human-sourced food could disrupt this balance, but has been proposed to improve the overall health of the island’s dingo (Canis lupus dingo) population, which is allege...
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Online Access: | https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q37zv/insects-for-breakfast-and-whales-for-dinner-the-diet-and-body-condition-of-dingoes-on-fraser-island-k-gari https://research.usq.edu.au/download/f9879a9707ece5569818ae8bd3b0fe228d4cf632691b28a20e605ba44cdc5eb4/1315694/Allen_etal_Insects_2016.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/srep23469 |
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ftusqland:oai:research.usq.edu.au:q37zv 2023-05-15T15:50:32+02:00 Insects for breakfast and whales for dinner: the diet and body condition of dingoes on Fraser Island (K’gari) Behrendorff, Linda Leung, Luke K.-P. McKinnon, Allan Hanger, Jon Belonje, Grant Tapply, Jenna Jones, Darryl Allen, Benjamin L. 2016 application/pdf https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q37zv/insects-for-breakfast-and-whales-for-dinner-the-diet-and-body-condition-of-dingoes-on-fraser-island-k-gari https://research.usq.edu.au/download/f9879a9707ece5569818ae8bd3b0fe228d4cf632691b28a20e605ba44cdc5eb4/1315694/Allen_etal_Insects_2016.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/srep23469 unknown https://research.usq.edu.au/download/f9879a9707ece5569818ae8bd3b0fe228d4cf632691b28a20e605ba44cdc5eb4/1315694/Allen_etal_Insects_2016.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/srep23469 Behrendorff, Linda, Leung, Luke K.-P., McKinnon, Allan, Hanger, Jon, Belonje, Grant, Tapply, Jenna, Jones, Darryl and Allen, Benjamin L. 2016. "Insects for breakfast and whales for dinner: the diet and body condition of dingoes on Fraser Island (K’gari)." Scientific Reports. 6, pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep23469 CC BY 4.0 CC-BY animal physiology behavioural ecology article PeerReviewed 2016 ftusqland https://doi.org/10.1038/srep23469 2023-02-06T23:40:01Z Top-predators play stabilising roles in island food webs, including Fraser Island, Australia. Subsidising generalist predators with human-sourced food could disrupt this balance, but has been proposed to improve the overall health of the island’s dingo (Canis lupus dingo) population, which is allegedly ‘starving’ or in ‘poor condition’. We assess this hypothesis by describing the diet and health of dingoes on Fraser Island from datasets collected between 2001 and 2015. Medium-sized mammals (such as bandicoots) and fish were the most common food items detected in dingo scat records. Stomach contents records revealed additional information on diet, such as the occurrence of human-sourced foods. Trail camera records highlighted dingo utilisation of stranded marine fauna, particularly turtles and whales. Mean adult body weights were higher than the national average, body condition scores and abundant-excessive fat reserves indicated a generally ideal-heavy physical condition, and parasite loads were low and comparable to other dingo populations. These data do not support hypotheses that Fraser Island dingoes have restricted diets or are in poor physical condition. Rather, they indicate that dingoes on Fraser Island are capable of exploiting a diverse array of food sources which contributes to the vast majority of dingoes being of good-excellent physical condition. Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus University of Southern Queensland: USQ ePrints Fraser Island ENVELOPE(-64.129,-64.129,-64.731,-64.731) Scientific Reports 6 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Southern Queensland: USQ ePrints |
op_collection_id |
ftusqland |
language |
unknown |
topic |
animal physiology behavioural ecology |
spellingShingle |
animal physiology behavioural ecology Behrendorff, Linda Leung, Luke K.-P. McKinnon, Allan Hanger, Jon Belonje, Grant Tapply, Jenna Jones, Darryl Allen, Benjamin L. Insects for breakfast and whales for dinner: the diet and body condition of dingoes on Fraser Island (K’gari) |
topic_facet |
animal physiology behavioural ecology |
description |
Top-predators play stabilising roles in island food webs, including Fraser Island, Australia. Subsidising generalist predators with human-sourced food could disrupt this balance, but has been proposed to improve the overall health of the island’s dingo (Canis lupus dingo) population, which is allegedly ‘starving’ or in ‘poor condition’. We assess this hypothesis by describing the diet and health of dingoes on Fraser Island from datasets collected between 2001 and 2015. Medium-sized mammals (such as bandicoots) and fish were the most common food items detected in dingo scat records. Stomach contents records revealed additional information on diet, such as the occurrence of human-sourced foods. Trail camera records highlighted dingo utilisation of stranded marine fauna, particularly turtles and whales. Mean adult body weights were higher than the national average, body condition scores and abundant-excessive fat reserves indicated a generally ideal-heavy physical condition, and parasite loads were low and comparable to other dingo populations. These data do not support hypotheses that Fraser Island dingoes have restricted diets or are in poor physical condition. Rather, they indicate that dingoes on Fraser Island are capable of exploiting a diverse array of food sources which contributes to the vast majority of dingoes being of good-excellent physical condition. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Behrendorff, Linda Leung, Luke K.-P. McKinnon, Allan Hanger, Jon Belonje, Grant Tapply, Jenna Jones, Darryl Allen, Benjamin L. |
author_facet |
Behrendorff, Linda Leung, Luke K.-P. McKinnon, Allan Hanger, Jon Belonje, Grant Tapply, Jenna Jones, Darryl Allen, Benjamin L. |
author_sort |
Behrendorff, Linda |
title |
Insects for breakfast and whales for dinner: the diet and body condition of dingoes on Fraser Island (K’gari) |
title_short |
Insects for breakfast and whales for dinner: the diet and body condition of dingoes on Fraser Island (K’gari) |
title_full |
Insects for breakfast and whales for dinner: the diet and body condition of dingoes on Fraser Island (K’gari) |
title_fullStr |
Insects for breakfast and whales for dinner: the diet and body condition of dingoes on Fraser Island (K’gari) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Insects for breakfast and whales for dinner: the diet and body condition of dingoes on Fraser Island (K’gari) |
title_sort |
insects for breakfast and whales for dinner: the diet and body condition of dingoes on fraser island (k’gari) |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q37zv/insects-for-breakfast-and-whales-for-dinner-the-diet-and-body-condition-of-dingoes-on-fraser-island-k-gari https://research.usq.edu.au/download/f9879a9707ece5569818ae8bd3b0fe228d4cf632691b28a20e605ba44cdc5eb4/1315694/Allen_etal_Insects_2016.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/srep23469 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-64.129,-64.129,-64.731,-64.731) |
geographic |
Fraser Island |
geographic_facet |
Fraser Island |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_relation |
https://research.usq.edu.au/download/f9879a9707ece5569818ae8bd3b0fe228d4cf632691b28a20e605ba44cdc5eb4/1315694/Allen_etal_Insects_2016.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/srep23469 Behrendorff, Linda, Leung, Luke K.-P., McKinnon, Allan, Hanger, Jon, Belonje, Grant, Tapply, Jenna, Jones, Darryl and Allen, Benjamin L. 2016. "Insects for breakfast and whales for dinner: the diet and body condition of dingoes on Fraser Island (K’gari)." Scientific Reports. 6, pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep23469 |
op_rights |
CC BY 4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/srep23469 |
container_title |
Scientific Reports |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766385491645562880 |