Australia's wild predator dogs may actually help livestock: research

SYDNEY, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Animal predators such as dingo feral dogs in Australia may have run-ins with humans but they may actually provide wide-ranging benefits including help with agricultural production, according to a latest Australian-led research.

Dingoes prey on young cattle but Australia's native wild dogs may also help control kangaroo populations that compete with livestock grazing on pasture land, University of Queensland researcher Christopher O'Bryan, a member of the team behind the international review of the cases, told Xinhua on Friday.

"By keeping kangaroos at bay on cattle land, dingoes may actually provide a net benefit to farmers. It's just a part of dingoes we haven't really thought about before."

Dingoes were transported, apparently by Asian seafarers, to Australia 3,500 to 4,000 years ago and are found across the country, but the wolf-like dogs' numbers have declined due to human persecution and habitat loss, according to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy nonprofit conservation group.

O'Bryan's study, which was published in the Nature Ecology and Evolution scientific journal and released on Friday, also reviewed cases of predators and scavengers such as mountain lions in the United States where the big cats preying on deer have helped reduce the ruminants colliding with vehicles, and vultures in India where the birds have helped control the amount of disease hosts by consuming carrion quickly.

The research is just beginning to shed light on the "potentially irreplaceable services" provided by these animals and their declining numbers may spell trouble for their human neighbors, said O'Bryan.

Looking back at Australia and its dingoes, O'Bryan said calculating the services of the dogs in other ways would be the next step. That includes the benefits that dingoes bring by preying on feral cats, which are known to decimate native bird populations, he said.

"Not only would it benefit ecosystems, but it would also be helpful to understand how much money it saves researchers and managers by having dingoes around." Enditem