Program in pipeline to save dingoes

Stepping gingerly into the enclosure, my eyes were filled with a captivating sight: Kim Sinclair- Ivey and her “babies”.

Every myth and misconception I may have had of dingoes was pushed aside. Instead of seeing fierce-looking jaws and exposed razor-sharp fangs, I saw these two large dogs, wagging their tails and smiling with open mouths, clamouring to lick the face of their trainer. Although they are wild animals, there is a gentleness and beauty about them.

As I approach, Balanda and Wirrin turn their focus to me and the camera bag slung over my shoulder.

I gently drop the bag for them to sniff as I enter and soon find myself subjected to curious nuzzling and sniffing.

Ms Sinclair-Ivey, a zoo keeper and primary trainer of eight pure dingoes at the Malcolm Douglas Wildlife Park, is a champion of dingoes.

She is instrumental in helping to launch WA’s first dingo breeding program at the park.

While dingoes remain a star attraction on any visitor’s list, the truth behind Australia’s carnivorous wild dogs remains, on the whole, unknown.

“The dingo is definitely endangered,” she said.

“In 20 years the scientists say there will be no pure dingoes left in Australia.”

The main threats to dingoes, she said, was the aerial dog baiting program launched by the Department of Agriculture.

“Not only does it kill the dingo, it kills the wild dogs (the hybrid dingo) and that’s the other main threat to the pure dingo,” she said.

Ms Sinclair-Ivey said it was time to educate and change the public’s perception of dingoes, which are red listed as endangered in other parts of the world.

The park’s eight dingoes, which originate from New South Wales, have been DNA tested as pure.

However, in the wild, dingoes are commonly mistaken for hybrid species.

“Pure dingoes tend to roam around in small packs,” she said. “They are self sufficient but if their pack gets killed off because of the baiting, then they will go and run with the wild dogs and interbreed.

“That’s where we have come up with these hybrid wild dogs which will have the domestic dog in them that go out for prey and for fun.”

Unlike the aggressive-natured hybrids, dingoes, Ms Sinclair-Ivey said, were very timid and sensitive creatures, like wolves.

Since being appointed as dingo trainer at the park last January, she has worked with the dingoes to learn their traits and establish a bond in order to educate the public and raise awareness of their endangerment.

Ms Sinclair-Ivey said a dingo breeding program was in the pipeline, among other long-term projects, and staff looked forward to welcoming some dingo pups, which will help keep the animals off the endangered list.