Find research datasets worth reusing

opencc-zeroMar 2024View details →

Male dingo urinary scents code for age class and wild dingoes respond to this information

Chemical information in canid urine has been implicated in territoriality and influences the spacing of individuals. We identified the key volatile organic compound (VOC) components in dingo (Canis lupus dingo) urine and investigated the potential role of scents in territorial spacing. VOC analysis, using headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), demonstrated that the information in fresh urine from adult male dingoes was sufficient to allow statistical classification into age categories. Discriminant function analyses demonstrated that the relative amounts or combinations of key VOCs from pre-prime (3-4 years), prime (5-9 years), and post-prime (≥10 years) males varied between these age categories, and that scents exposed to the environment for 4 (but not 33) days could still be classified to age categories. Further, a field experiment showed that dingoes spent less time in the vicinity of prime male dingo scents than other scents. Collectively, these results indicate that age-related scent differences may be discriminable by dingoes. Previous authors have suggested the potential to use scent as a management tool for wild canids by creating an artificial territorial boundary/barrier. Our results suggest that identifying the specific signals in prime-age male scents could facilitate the development of scent-based tools for non-lethal management.

opencc-zeroJun 2022View details →

A genetically isolated dingo population in western Victoria, Australia, reveals greater structuring of the Australian dingo

The Australian dingo is a relatively recent anthropogenic addition to the Australian fauna, which spread rapidly across the continent and has since widely interbred with modern dogs. Genetic studies of dingoes have given rise to speculation about their entry to the continent and subsequent biogeographic effects, but few studies of their contemporary population structure have been conducted. Here we investigated the dingo ancestry and population structure of free-living dogs in western Victoria and contrasted it with a wider southern Australian sample. We wished to determine whether their geographic isolation was mirrored in genetic isolation. To address this question, we analysed genetic data using Bayesian clustering and discriminant analysis of principal components, and summarised genetic diversity at the population and individual levels. Upon finding low genetic diversity in western Victoria, we tested for a recent genetic bottleneck. The broader southern Australia sample (n=1,138) comprised mostly hybrid animals, with ~30% dingoes. All western Victorian individuals (n= 59) appeared to be hybrids with high dingo ancestry. The population showed no evidence of admixture with other populations and no recent bottleneck. Based upon our characterisation of this unusual mainland population, we sound caution for future studies assuming homogeneity of dingoes across the continent.

opencc-zeroJun 2022View details →

Stable dingo population structure and purity over 11 years of lethal management

Interactions between predators and humans are a key driver of human-wildlife conflicts and can underpin the management of predator populations. Management of the impacts of dingoes (Canis familiaris) on livestock and native species is a prime example of a persistent and contentious predator management issue with potential impacts on the integrity of dingo populations. To manage the potential impacts of dingoes and their control, it is imperative to understand the effects of control approaches on their populations in the short and long term. Hybridisation of dingoes with domestic dogs (C. familiaris) threatens the genetic integrity of pure dingoes. It has been hypothesised that lethal control of dingoes can facilitate hybridisation by disrupting pack social structures leading to increased dingo-domestic dog interactions. Here we use dingo genetic samples from three distinct sampling periods: 2009, 2014, and 2020, within the Murchison Regional Vermin Cell (MRVC) area in Western Australia (WA). At the time of the study, the MRVC was a large, partially-fenced area in which dingo control has been performed for many decades. We assess dingo purity, population clustering, gene flow, and individual relatedness in the context of ongoing control. We identified three genetically distinct populations in the study area, consistent with previous genetic studies of WA, but did not find any evidence of change in dingo purity or population characteristics, however barrier fencing may be influencing recent gene flow. Policy implications: The metapopulation of dingoes in the southern rangelands of WA appears to be stable over the 11 years assessed here and there is no evidence that lethal control to reduce losses to livestock production and for conservation of native wildlife is putting dingo purity at risk. Fencing appears to be an effective management tool as there is some evidence it is separating dingo populations in areas where the fences are well maintained.

zenodo36/100

O1, O2, and O3 DINGO ASD Datasets

ASD datasets used for training DINGO. These have been accumulated through several studies and we will be adding to this data repository as we generate more ASD datasets. For now, we are not releasing ASD datasets from O4 as this contains private LVK data.  There are three folders corresponding to the three different observing runs. Under each observing run folder there is a subfolder (either 8s or 16s) which sets the frequency spacing for the ASD dataset. In the O3 folder, there are both 8s and 16s ASD datasets. For now, we have not generated 16s ASD datasets for O1 and O2. The ASD datasets come in pairs labeled asds_OBSERVING_RUN_fiducial.hdf5 and asds_OBSERVING_RUN.hdf5 respectively. The _fiducial corresponds to the fact that this asd dataset only contains one ASD which used during the first stage of training. The file without the _fiducial tag indicates that ASDs sampled from across the entire observing run are used. Detailed dataset generation settings for each dataset can be found by running `dingo_ls /path/to/asd_dataset.hdf5` after installing DINGO.

opencc-by-4.0Aug 2024View details →

opencc-zeroMay 2023View details →

Axiom canine microarray data from Australian dingoes and domestic dogs for admixture and population structure analysis

Admixture between species is a cause for concern in wildlife management. Canids are particularly vulnerable to inter-specific hybridisation, and genetic admixture has shaped their evolutionary history. Microsatellite DNA testing, relying on a small number of genetic markers and geographically restricted reference populations, has identified extensive domestic dog admixture in Australian dingoes and driven conservation management policy. There has been concern that geographic variation in dingo genotypes could confound ancestry analyses that use a small number of genetic markers. Here we apply genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping to a set of 385 wild and captive dingoes from across Australia and then carry out comparisons to domestic dogs, and perform ancestry modelling and biogeographic analyses to characterize population structure in dingoes and investigate the extent of admixture between dingoes and dogs in different regions of the continent. We show that there are at least five distinct dingo populations across Australia. We observed limited evidence of dog admixture in wild dingoes, challenging previous reports regarding the occurrence and extent of dog admixture in dingoes, as our ancestry analyses show that previous assessments severely overestimate the degree of domestic dog admixture in dingo populations, particularly in southeastern Australia. These findings strongly support the use of genome-wide SNP genotyping as a refined method for wildlife managers and policy makers to assess and inform dingo management policy and legislation moving forwards.

publicJun 2022View details →

Stable dingo population structure and purity over 11 years of lethal management

Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.

publicDec 2025View details →

Diets of the introduced domestic cat (Felis catus), red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and dingo (Canis familiaris) in Australia

Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.

publicJun 2022View details →

A genetically isolated dingo population in western Victoria, Australia, reveals greater structuring of the Australian dingo

Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.

publicMar 2024View details →

Male dingo urinary scents code for age class and wild dingoes respond to this information

Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.

publicSep 2025View details →

Axiom canine microarray data from Australian dingoes and domestic dogs for admixture and population structure analysis

Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.

FIGURE 4. A in Taxonomic status of the Australian dingo: the case for Canis dingo Meyer, 1793

FIGURE 4. A summary of the evolutionary relationships among wolves, dingoes and modern domestic dogs. This figure is a synthesis of the various dog-origin models from vonHoldt et al. (2010), Cairns & Wilton (2016) and vonHoldt & Driscoll (2016). Dingoes and other ancient lineages of dog such as New Guinea singing dogs form a distinct lineage separate from modern domestic dogs which have undergone successive generations of artificial selection.

FIGURE 3 in Taxonomic status of the Australian dingo: the case for Canis dingo Meyer, 1793

FIGURE 3. Genetic variation among dingoes, New Guinea singing dogs, wolves and modern domestic dogs based on genomewide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data expressed using principal components analysis (PCA) representing 841 dogs (green), 24 dingoes (black), 5 New Guinea singing dogs (orange), 14 wolves (blue). Within the dogs there were 292 breed dogs (light green) and 549 village dogs (dark green). We genotyped each of these canid samples using the Illumina CanineHD 170 SNP chip (data from Cairns 2015 and Shannon et al. 2015). We analysed genotype data in PLINK 1.9 (Chang et al. 2015) by merging the datasets and removing SNPs that were missing in more than 10% of samples. The total remaining SNP markers were 166,019. We did the PCA in PLINK 1.9 and visualised the results using R (v 3.2.1). PC1 accounts for 49.2% of variation,

FIGURE 2. Cranial 3-D in Taxonomic status of the Australian dingo: the case for Canis dingo Meyer, 1793

FIGURE 2. Cranial 3-D reconstructions of a dingo (bottom) and a free-ranging dog (top), highlighting the differences in cranial morphology mentioned in the text. The dog cranium has been scaled to match the length of the dingo cranium to facilitate the comparison of feature shape. The dingo (male) was collected from Minburra Station in South Australia. The dog (female, 14.5 kg) was collected in 1981 from the Victorian Highlands (Evan Jones Collection).

FIGURE 1 in The Dogma of Dingoes-Taxonomic status of the dingo: A reply to Smith et al

FIGURE 1. Principal component analysis of 14 Gray Wolves, 40 Village dogs, 40 ancient dog breeds (Akita, Basenji, Chow Chow), 29 modern Australian dog breeds (Cattle dog and Australian Shepherd) from Shannon et al. (2015), and 23 Dingoes from Cairns et al. (2018). We filtered the data from the different studies to include only breeds of interest, and we kept shared SNPs using PLINK v1.90b5 (Chang et al. 2015). PC analysis was conducted using PLINK. Variation explained by the first five principal components was computed based on the eigenvalues of the first 20 components.

FIGURE 1 in Taxonomic status of the Australian dingo: the case for Canis dingo Meyer, 1793

FIGURE 1. An example of a typical dingo phenotype. Photograph depicts a male from K'gari-Fraser Island (Queensland) by John Williams.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

dryad32/100

Data from: Death by sex in an Australian icon: a continent-wide survey reveals extensive hybridization between dingoes and domestic dogs

Hybridization between domesticated animals and their wild counterparts can disrupt adaptive gene combinations, reduce genetic diversity, extinguish wild populations and change ecosystem function. The dingo is a free-ranging dog that is an iconic apex predator and distributed throughout most of mainland Australia. Dingoes readily hybridize with domestic dogs, and in many Australian jurisdictions, distinct management strategies are dictated by hybrid status. Yet, the magnitude and spatial extent of domestic dog–dingo hybridization is poorly characterized. To address this, we performed a continent-wide analysis of hybridization throughout Australia based on 24 locus microsatellite DNA genotypes from 3637 free-ranging dogs. Although 46% of all free-ranging dogs were classified as pure dingoes, all regions exhibited some hybridization, and the magnitude varied substantially. The southeast of Australia was highly admixed, with 99% of animals being hybrids or feral domestic dogs, whereas only 13% of the animals from remote central Australia were hybrids. Almost all free-ranging dogs had some dingo ancestry, indicating that domestic dogs could have poor survivorship in nonurban Australian environments. Overall, wild pure dingoes remain the dominant predator over most of Australia, but the speed and extent to which hybridization has occurred in the approximately 220 years since the first introduction of domestic dogs indicate that the process may soon threaten the persistence of pure dingoes.