DINGO ECOLOGY IN THE GBMWHA
A PhD project conducted via the University of New South Wales.
PROJECT DETAILS
PhD candidate: Daniel Hunter
Supervisors: A/Prof Mike Letnic and Dr Rosalie Chapple.
project OVERVIEW
The aim of this project was to build understanding about the effects of high-level predators (e.g. dingoes, foxes, cats and quolls) on small to medium-sized mammals as well as larger macropods and how this, in turn, can induce trophic cascades and influence other aspects of ecology.
In the forests eastern Australia, dingoes are subject to intense baiting, trapping and shooting as they are a known predator of many livestock species. However, removal of top order predators from ecosystems doesn’t come without repurcussions. Studies of dingo removal in arid Australia have demonstrated that the removal of dingoes promotes an environment where the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and feral cat (Felis catus) can flourish in the absence of any top-down suppression – known as the mesopredator release hypothesis. Research was conducted in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area (GBMWHA). To test the effects of dingo removal on native small mammal abundance we surveyed areas where dingoes were locally uncommon and locally common. This was determined by the presence or absence of lethal 1080 poison baiting. Surveys consisted of small mammal trapping and large scale camera and sand plot surveys at both control and treatment sites. Initial results demonstrate that at sites where dingoes are locally common, mesopredator incidence is lower and native small mammal abundance is significantly higher compared with sites where dingoes are locally uncommon. This suggests that dingo presence is positively associated with native small mammal abundance in temperate forests of NSW. This research provides clear evidence of the dingo’s role as an important conservation tool in the battle against invasive predators in forest ecosystems of eastern Australia.
Media coverage
publications and reports
2018. Not all predators are equal: a continent-scale analysis of the effects of predator control on Australian mammals.
Reference: Hunter, D., Lagisz, M., Leo, V., Nakagawa, S., Letnic, M, 2018. 'Not all predators are equal: a continent-scale analysis of the effects of predator control on Australian mammals', Mammal Review (2018): 1-15.