Desert dingo population faces extinction risk amid cultural and farming tensions

A controversial population of desert dingoes could become the first of their kind to be recognised nationally as being in danger of extinction.

Ecologists and advocates are concerned the dingoes, which live in nature reserves across the Victorian and South Australian border, could die out because of the compounded effects of inbreeding and historical culling.

The Threatened Species Scientific Committee (TSSC), which advises the federal government on what species and ecosystems are threatened, will spend the next three years assessing whether it recommends the dingoes need national protection.

Wildlife ecologist Euan Ritchie of Deakin University said evidence from camera trapping and genetics showed the population, also known as wilkerr, was highly inbred.

"There are about 100 or fewer adult individuals in the population," Professor Ritchie said.

"This population has examples of full siblings we think are breeding with each other.

But tensions exist about what to do because the wilkerr mean different things to different groups of people, from farmers experiencing stock loss to First Nations groups fearing cultural erasure.

National protection could also override state-level laws in South Australia that allow for the animals to be culled or eliminated, or the potential reversal of protection for dingoes in Victoria.

Dingo protection case put forward

Two years ago, Big Desert Dingo Research and the Australian Dingo Foundation put forward an application to the TSSC to consider wilkerr critically endangered.

The application highlighted genetic studies that identified distinct populations of dingoes around the country.

Wilkerr are one of eight genetically distinct sub-populations of dingoes in Australia.

They are also culturally significant to the Wotjobaluk Nations of Western Victoria, a connection reflected through both rock art and creation stories.

A more recent study, which compared the genetics of modern populations of dingoes with ancient DNA samples from pre-European colonisation, suggested the animals were mostly genetically dingoes despite historical interbreeding with more recently introduced dogs.

The average dingo ancestry across 16 sampled wilkerr was about 87 per cent.

Australian Dingo Foundation director Melinda Browning said she wanted to see a moratorium on all lethal control of wilkerr, particularly in South Australia, while the assessment was undertaken.

"It seems crazy to be assessing a critically endangered population while lethal control is still happening," she said.

Professor Ritchie said reintroduction of dingoes from other sub-populations might need to be considered to conserve and strengthen the genetics of the population.

But, he said, there were no current plans to do so, and it would be difficult to translocate new animals as dingoes were territorial.

SA government questions process

Wilkerr live in the Ngarkat Conservation Park in South Australia.

The park sits next to the Limestone Coast region of SA, which is home to 80 per cent of the state's sheep industry, south of a fence that divides the state.

The SA government refers to animals in the north as dingoes, and ones to the south as wild dogs.

The national wild dog action plan defines wild dogs as "all wild-living dogs, which include: dingoes, feral dogs and their hybrids".

A Department of Primary Industries and Regions SA (PIRSA) spokesperson said it took a "practical approach to managing wild dogs".

"Inside the SA dog fence, including Ngarkat Conservation Park, wild dogs are managed to protect SA's $1.7 billion sheep industry," the spokesperson said.

"Outside the dog fence, across two-thirds of the state, dingoes are recognised for their ecological and cultural values and are managed only where they cause unacceptable impacts on cattle production or pose a risk to human safety."

The spokesperson said the state government had not yet formally considered the wilkerr threatened species assessment.

"[But] there are significant concerns about evidence provided to support the nomination of the wilkerr wild dog population as critically endangered," they said.

"In particular, the nomination relies heavily on genetic information to define the population, while questions remain about the geographic extent of the population, its actual abundance and whether there is evidence of a population decline."

Victoria's dingo law limbo

Wilkerr have been protected in Victoria since 2024.

But that could change if the opposition, which has promised to remove the protection, is elected at the upcoming November state election.

Victorian Farmers Federation board member Peter Star, a cattle and sheep producer, said when dingoes were protected "the farmer … needed protection as well".

"The reality is they have the right to run sustainable and profitable farms, while at the same time their mental health is at risk because of this," he said.

"Currently in the north-west of Victoria, the farmers that border the national park are basically not allowed to take any action towards any dogs that come across their properties."

If a federal listing was put in place, farmers would need a federal permit to kill any wilkerr.

Professor Ritchie said where there were transitions to increase dingo protection graziers should also be helped.

"A combination of non-lethal approaches could help to protect livestock while still maintaining dingoes in the landscape," he said.

Mr Star said while there had been some support from the Victorian government for exclusion fencing and guardian animals, these measures needed to be "complemented by lethal control".

"We're not seeking to eliminate or exterminate these animals from that environment … all we're looking for is for them to be controlled."

Victorian farmers have faced mounting stock loss since the 2024 state protection order.

One farmer, who lives on the edge of Big Desert, recently sent a $40,000 bill for compensation to the Victorian government for the loss of 16 ewes and 145 lambs, which he attributed to wild dogs.

The Victorian government does not compensate farmers for stock losses.

It is unclear whether wilkerr numbers have rebounded in the past two years.

The Victorian government recently surveyed dingo numbers on its side of the border, but is yet to make the data public.