title: 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.
authors.affiliation: The University of Queensland, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Gatton, Queensland 4343, Australia.|Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of National Parks, Sport and Racing, Fraser Island, Queensland 4581, Australia.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Behrendorff
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
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Heritage Protection, Threatened Species Unit, Moggill, Queensland 4070, Australia.
authors.forename: Allan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McKinnon
authors.affiliation: Endeavour Veterinary Ecology, Toorbul, Queensland 4510, Australia.
authors.forename: Jon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hanger
authors.affiliation: Fraser Coast Veterinary Services, Maryborough, Queensland 4650, Australia.
authors.forename: Grant
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Belonje
authors.affiliation: Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of National Parks, Sport and Racing, Fraser Island, Queensland 4581, Australia.
authors.forename: Jenna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tapply
authors.affiliation: Griffith University, Environmental Futures Research Institute, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia.
authors.forename: Darryl
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: The University of Southern Queensland, Institute for Agriculture and the Environment, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia.
authors.forename: Benjamin L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Allen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia; D001835:Body Weight; D020387:Food Chain; D007313:Insecta; D011235:Predatory Behavior; D014907:Whales; D019596:Wolves / Q000502:physiology*