Our response: Despite being a common claim, evidence exists which proves its opposite. Researchers from the University of New South Wales have shown that, while hybridisation is a conservation concern, only 0.6% of free-living canids in their study were classified as containing zero dingo ancestry. A total of 783 animal samples were sourced from NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) control operations between 1996 and 2012. The majority were ostensibly killed to minimise “the impact of canid predation on neighbouring livestock operators”. Further, the study found that some regions were found to be “largely free” of hybridisation with domestic dogs. Ultimately, the researchers advised that “legislators and land managers may need to consider less restrictive species definitions to conserve endangered or ecologically significant taxa”, such as the dingo. Thus, there is strong evidence to suggest that claims such as these are misleading and misinformed.
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