Not all Australian animals are good for Australian ecosystems. We have
learned only recently that introducing animals where they are naturally not
found can be a very regrettable thing to do. You would think that an
animal would have difficulties to survive in an environment it is not
adapted to, and it sometimes is the case, but often it is the other way
around. Here is some information on introduced wild animals in Australia,
as well as some dingo pictures, dingo facts, and facts about brumby
horses, feral cats, camels and rabbits in Australia.
What's the Problem with Introduced Animals?
Many Australian introduced animals thrive better in Australia than on their
home continents. Because Australia lacks large carnivores, introduced
animals have no predators in Australia. Being placental animals they have
larger brains than marsupials and they are successful killers of native fauna. They also
compete with native fauna for food and habitat. Some, like cane toads, kill small animals
that they eat, and large animals that eat them because they are poisonous. Other
introduced species that Australia would do better without are dingos, rabbits, feral cats,
brumby horses, camels, donkeys, pigs, goats, buffalos, foxes, rats and deer.
Australian Dingos and the Dingo Fence
As Australian as dingo may sound, it is not a native animal
in Australia. Dingo was introduced to Australia about 5,000
years ago from South-east Asia, and is thought to have evolved from Indian wolf. It is now
found in most of mainland Australia, except in areas in New South Wales, South Australia
and Western Australia where it is kept out by the Dingo Fence, as long as 6000km. Its
absence in Tasmania (and red fox’s) has saved Tasmanian Devil that got extinct on
mainland since dingo was introduced.
Dingo Information - what is a Dingo?
Australian Dingo (Canis lupus dingo) is a dog-looking animal that is
most often ginger in colour but you can exceptionally see a black or
white dingo. They grow up to 1220mm long and weigh up to 24kg.
They breed between April and
June and give birth to 1-10
pups about 60 days after mating. Baby dingo puppies
are very cute but Australian dingo is not a suitable pet
animal.
Dingo Facts - Dingo Habitat
Australian dingos live in all terrestrial habitats like
forests, woodlands, heath and grasslands. They eat
reptiles, birds, mammals, insects and in coastal areas,
fish. Australian dingos are mostly nocturnal and very
territorial. They mark the boundaries of their
territories and male dingo defends its territory so groups seldom cross boundaries. The size
of the territory, and the size of a pack, depend on the quality of habitat. The more resources
there are, the smaller the territory, and the smaller the pack.
What Do Dingos Eat?
Australian dingo is the largest carnivorous land animal in
Australia, and it eats all other animals it can get. Wild dingos
often hunt alone, but for larger prey like big kangaroos packhunting is needed. Australian dingo lives up to seven years old.
Dingo Dogs - Pets of Aborginal People
When dingos were brought to Australia by Asian seafarers,
Aboriginal people adopted them as guards and companions,
and dingoes still appear in Aboriginal stories and art.
Dingo Attacks - Dingo Fraser Island
Australian dingo is often hated because it kills both livestock and
native Australian animals, and because of a few attacks that have
happened on people. But many people argue that livestock doesn’t
make up more than 2% of its diet, and that Australian dingo
doesn’t affect native ecosystems because it has been in Australia
for so long that native animals have had time to adapt evolutionary
to a predator like dingo. Attacks on people have only happened
because Australian dingo looks like a dog and it’s easy to forget that it is a wild animal. In
places where people have fed them, they lose their fear of humans and may attack,
particularly kids.
Places to See Australian Dingo
Love them or hate them, they do bring in
some tourist dollars and good places to
see them in the wild are Fraser Island in
Queensland, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National
Park in Northern Territory, and Lake Eyre
in South Australia. Australian dingo is also
found in most of Australian zoo parks.
Rabbits in Australia
When British people first came to Australia, they thought Australia was a dry and boring
place and needed to liven
up a bit. They introduced plants
from England to make
the landscape greener and
looking more like back in
England. In 1859 a man by the
name Thomas Austin
thought he'd have a bit of fun
and released 24 rabbits
in Australia, in Victoria. What
he didn't consider was
that rabbits (Oryctolagus
cuniculus) are known to
be extra quick breeders. They
spread in no time over
wide areas in south-eastern
Australia and today
rabbit populations in Australia
cover the whole continent except the tropical north. There is plenty of perfect rabbit habitat
in Australia, and rabbits have become serious pests that compete for food and habitat with
native fauna, and cause soil erosion and habitat destruction. Like the dingo fence, there is
also a rabbit proof fence in Australia.
Other Introduced Wild Animals in Australia
And you would think that people would have learned from that mistake but no – they got
excited about the idea instead. All suddenly they needed deer (Cervidae sp.) and red foxes
in the wild for game hunting, they needed cats as their pets, and some others like rats were
taken here on the boats by accident. It went so far that European animals weren’t enough
and so-called “Acclimatisation Societies” were formed, where some of the most dangerous
and stupid thoughts were thought, like how giraffes would suit the landscape in central
Australia and apes and monkeys would make the rainforest life a bit more interesting!
Thanks god these plans didn’t go through but red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) are today one of the
most wide-spread introduced animals, and they prey on native animals. There are 12 million
feral cats (Felis catus) in Australia that constantly kill Australian native birds and mammals.
Rats (Rattus sp.) are found in the coastal areas and they also kill small Australian
mammals.
Brumby Facts - Australian Brumby Horses
The early British were also fairly slack to tie their horses
(Equus caballus) up properly. The first gold in many parts of
Australia was often found in water streams by boys who
roamed the countryside looking for their escaped horses. Many
horses were never found and started breeding in the wild –
today there are populations of feral horses, called brumby
horses, scattered around the Australian continent. Brumby
horses compete for food with native mammals, destroy their
habitat and cause soil erosion.
Camel Australia
To help the work in deserts, such as building inland railway lines,
about 10,000 camels (Camelus sp.) were introduced between
1840 and 1907. But after the work was ready – the camels were
released into the wild! Today, about 100,000 feral camels roam
the deserts of inland and Western Australia, eating plants that
shelter and feed native animals