Dingo sighted in Wacol bushland

Of all the animals I thought I might see today during my first visit to Pooh Corner Bushland Reserve, a dingo wasn’t one of them! 

I had just passed a woman walking with two offleash dogs when I saw a third dog following at a distance behind them. Only, the dog ran off the track and into the bush when it saw me, and I realised it was a wild animal!

It was wary without being particularly afraid; it never took its eyes off me, but it also seemed fairly content to stay put in the dry grass just twenty-five to thirty metres away.

Wacol is famous for its abundant eastern grey kangaroo population, some of which I saw today on the fields surrounding the nearby jail. Perhaps the lure of prey and access to water during these dry times has lured this creature down from the nearby ranges, where dingos are known to occur according to the Queensland Museum.

Although most likely not a purebred individual, I believe there is a lot of dingo in this animal’s genetic make-up regardless, and this also seems to be the consensus of a Facebook group that I shared my images in. While nobody can ascertain an animal’s DNA from a simple visual inspection, recent research has shown that the genetic purity of mainland dingo populations is not as watered down as farmers and governments would have us believe. When the University of NSW conducted DNA tests on 783 ‘wild dogs’ killed in the state over a 16-year period, the results were surprising: 25 per cent were pure-bred dingos, and the majority of the rest were mostly dingo. Just five animals were domestic dogs lacking any trace of dingo DNA.

Dingos are nevertheless a controversial topic in Australia. Fossil evidence and genetic research suggests that dingos are human-assisted immigrants to our country that have been here for about 5000 years, and there are almost identical dogs in Papua New Guinea and Thailand. With this in mind, they can be viewed as an introduced animal that displaces, destroys and competes with our native fauna. Other studies highlight that dingos are beneficial to our ecosystems, however, by suppressing and controlling mid-tier predators like cats and foxes, improving outcomes for small animals in the process. It’s possible that dingos are not just introduced, but naturalised, occupying an important and necessary apex predator role, albeit one they took from the mainland thylacine.

Politics and contentious opinions aside, I feel so lucky to have seen this animal within Brisbane’s city limits. When I started this blog, my aim was to show people that amazing, thrilling and surprising wildlife encounters are entirely possible within our own proverbial backyards. This dingo certainly puts the ‘wild’ in ‘Wild Brisbane’.