title: Diet of dingoes and other wild dogs in peri-urban areas of north-eastern Australia.
abstract: Knowledge of the resource requirements of urban predators can improve our understanding of their ecology and assist town planners and wildlife management agencies in developing management approaches that alleviate human-wildlife conflicts. Here we examine food and dietary items identified in scats of dingoes in peri-urban areas of north-eastern Australia to better understand their resource requirements and the potential for dingoes to threaten locally fragmented populations of native fauna. Our primary aim was to determine what peri-urban dingoes eat, and whether or not this differs between regions. We identified over 40 different food items in dingo scats, almost all of which were mammals. Individual species commonly observed in dingo scats included agile wallabies, northern brown bandicoots and swamp wallabies. Birds were relatively common in some areas but not others, as were invertebrates. Dingoes were identified as a significant potential threat to fragmented populations of koalas. Dietary overlap was typically very high or near-identical between regions, indicating that peri-urban dingoes ate the same types or sizes of prey in different areas. Future studies should seek to quantify actual and perceived impacts of, and human attitudes towards, peri-urban dingoes, and to develop management strategies with a greater chance of reducing human-wildlife conflicts.
authors.affiliation: Biosecurity Queensland, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia.|The University of Southern Queensland, Institute for Agriculture and Environment, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia.
authors.forename: Benjamin L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.affiliation: The University of Queensland, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Gatton, Queensland 4343, Australia.
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Carmelito
authors.affiliation: Biosecurity Queensland, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia.|The University of Queensland, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Gatton, Queensland 4343, Australia.
authors.forename: Matt
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amos
authors.affiliation: FeralsOut, Kippa-Ring, Queensland 4021, Australia.
authors.forename: Mark S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Goullet
authors.affiliation: Biosecurity Queensland, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia.
authors.forename: Lee R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.affiliation: Biosecurity Queensland, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Speed
authors.affiliation: Biosecurity Queensland, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia.
authors.forename: Matt
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gentle
authors.affiliation: The University of Queensland, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Gatton, Queensland 4343, Australia.
authors.forename: Luke K-P
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Leung
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000502:physiology*; D001315:Australia; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004032:Diet; D004285:Dogs; D056727:Endangered Species; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D011235:Predatory Behavior / Q000502:physiology