Insects for breakfast and whales for dinner: the diet and body condition of dingoes on Fraser Island (K’gari)

Abstract

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.

Managing dingoes on Fraser Island: culling, conflict, and an alternative

“…Analysis of ,1300 dingo scats in 1994 found 47% to contain human food (EPA 2001). A recent comparable survey found only 7.5% to contain human food (Behrendorff et al 2016). Also, contrary to this argument, long-term resident and shopkeeper, Joe Mills, at Happy Valley from the 1960s to the 1980s, readily admits to feeding wild dingoes; he describes them as timid, well behaved and regular scavengers at the numerous dumps that existed across Fraser Island.…”

“…Incident data for 2013 and 2015 is missing for the September-December period. The percentage of dingo scats carrying human-sourced food data are derived from Moussallli (1994), Twyford (1995), Angel (2006) and Behrendorff et al (2016).…”

Wildlife conservation management on inhabited islands

“…Greg Baxter and Nicole Davies (2018) further draw attention to the fields of science that are used to inform management decisions for such iconic species. Other research presented at the AWMS conference by Behrendorff et al (2016) describes the role and consequences of human food subsidies in the diverse diet of dingoes on Fraser Island.…”

Utilising aversive conditioning to manage the behaviour of K’gari (Fraser Island) dingoes (Canis dingo)

“…While there has been some notable success in limiting dingo access to certain areas (e.g. through fencing) and what appears to be a reduction in human-sourced food items found in dingo scats from 46.9% in 1995 to 7.5% most recently (Behrendorff et al 2016), occasional, serious incidents continue to occur.…”