Farmers fear dingoes are eating their livestock – but predator poo tells an unexpected story

A new study, co-authored by Biodiversity Council Councillor Euan Ritchie, collected and analysed 136 dingo, 200 fox and 25 cat scats from the Mallee region of Victoria to determine what each predator in the area was eating and how their diets differed. Diet analysis showed dingoes eat few sheep and that cats and foxes are killing and eating more threatened species than dingoes. The dingo diet was dominated by kangaroos, wallabies and emus.

KILLING CARNIVORES to protect livestock, wildlife and people is an emotive and controversial issue that can cause community conflict. Difficult decisions about managing predators must be supported by strong scientific evidence. In Australia, predators such as dingoes (Canis lupus dingo) and foxes (Vulpus vulpus) are often shot or poisoned with baits to prevent them from killing sheep and cattle. Feral cats and foxes are also killed to protect native wildlife. But research elsewhere suggests public perceptions of how predators affect ecosystems and livestock are not always accurate. Our recent study sought to shed light on these controversies. We examined the scat, or poo, left behind by dingoes, foxes and cats. We focused on the Mallee region