Speaking of feral dogs, do they compete with Dingos or have they begun to mix? I know the feral dogs there can get quite large and would seem with lack of competition and a large prey base this trend will continue.
Excellent. For lots of reasons.
But most of all I love how it's a scientific study unambiguously noting as a matter of fact that purebreeds are fundamentally a garbage concept. And also it does a great job of dispelling the mythology surrounding LGDs.
I wish other natural working dog cultures were studied with such professionalism. The whole world of dogs should be up to this standard, but only LGDs are thanks largely to coppinger. The rest is just reduced to a childish "breed encyclopedia", "dogs 101" etc bs level.
Purebreeds should just be ignored by everyone except for dog show loonies, and working dogs should be a serious category of scientific research and understanding.
I'm no scientist myself so all I can really do is complain. I want scientists to hop to it and start studying the world of working dogs so I as an enthusiast can learn from them.
LGDs are a great start and there is some great work being done here and I wish them all the best in establishing reproducing LGD populations in these sheep producing cultures that have lost LGDs somewhere along the way. Hopefully doing away with such ugly evils as poison baits and etc, and ultimately helping human beings live in harmony with wildlife the way we SHOULD be able to (we're just animals after all).
Australia should be the next on their agenda but unfortunately no one cares to conserve the feral dogs of australia but me. To me they belong here just like aborigines but I'm fighting a losing battle trying to argue that point.
Anyway, great thread and thank you!
Speaking of feral dogs, do they compete with Dingos or have they begun to mix? I know the feral dogs there can get quite large and would seem with lack of competition and a large prey base this trend will continue.
The thing is dingoes are just dogs, pure and simple. They were the first wave of dogs, then a new wave of dogs came in. With this new wave of dogs, came many other changes to australia, not least of which a wider variety of prey animals in certain areas. And so the wild dogs of australia, which by now I think should be considered part of the furniture, have changed in some areas from normal dingoes to different dog designs in response to the new prey animals and with help from the genes of domestic dog types which can contribute an aptitude for hunting these animals. What we get from the australian people is this big resistance to all this natural stuff taking place, they're trying to kill off the feral dogs and kill off their prey and ofcourse failing, and if anything just prolonging this awkward destructive transitionary period.
A totally natural one really which has happened on most other landmasses at different times in history. Eurasian animals invaded north america, caused a lot of extinctions and destruction but it all sorted itself out and created the north american wilderness we see today. North american animals invaded south america, again caused a lot of destruction and there was an awkward transition with extinctions and etc but it became the magnificent wilderness of south america.
The destruction in australia has already been done, it was done when the aborigines and later dingoes came to australia and completely decimated the native flora and fauna. Australia pre-europeans was a decimated biosphere, eerily devoid of large animals, an incomplete eco-system. The animals that have come with the europens noticed this vacancy and ofcourse are running amok, having a field day filling all the vacant niches. And people are scrambling to inhibit this process by any means necessary. Poisoning and trapping and aerial shooting and whatever you can be done to stop the animals from forming a new ecosystem. My view is- let them form a new ecosystem. Let it sort itself out and build up into a diverse and vibrant full eco-system as seen in south america.
Dogs are shaping up to be the main predators, and heading in some interesting directions with some (unfortunately shot) feral dogs verified to tip the scales at around 75 kgs.
Mind you I'm not saying ferals in australia shouldn't be hunted, by no means, but they should be hunted by natural methods that test the quality of the prey species and naturally spares the top specimens. In other words, hunt them with dogs.
Anyway, getting a bit of topic I suppose.
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