The Dingo for Biodiversity Project is a science and conservation initiative conducting research into the ecological role of dingoes. The project brings together ecologists and landholders to transition to predator-friendly practices, and monitors the ecological changes as dingo populations recover. We offer a new vision of conservation in which promoting dingoes replaces lethal control of introduced species for the enhancement of biodiversity.
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The Dingo for Biodiversity Project is part of the Centre for Compassionate Conservation at the University of Technology Sydney.
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PhD Top-Up Scholarship & Research Funds Opportunity
Centre for Compassionate Conservation, University of Technology Sydney Unique opportunity for an exceptional PhD student to be part of a new ARC funded international trophic cascades research program. We are inviting applicants for a challenging and rewarding PhD program, which offers research funds and a $5,000/year top-up scholarship, access to remote field sites in three global regions, and collaborations with international experts. Find out more |
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Video of Protected Australian Wildlife
Australia's desert wildlife as they truly are today. Different from the past, but just as wild and wonderful. Australia is home to an extraordinary variety of wildlife brought from across the seas. Many are threatened or extinct in their native range. Sadly they are subjected to control and eradication programs across the country, because they are not native. However, at our unique research sites all wildlife are protected. Enjoy this wildlife compilation from our 2017 Expedition! |
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Australia's first predator friendly brochure
Created by the Centre for Compassionate Conservation, the brochure provides an overview of the benefits of nonlethal methods for reducing dingo predation on livestock. It is free to download, print, and share. Download |
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31st October 2017
Through The Prism of the Dingo "When a dingo looks in my eyes I don't think they see an invasive species". Dr Arian Wallach, co-founder of the Dingo for Biodiversity Project, in conversation with Natasha Milne on My Home Planet Podcast about what dingoes can teach us about conservation and our place in the world. Listen here |
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2nd October 2017
From feral camels to 'cocaine hippos' New article in The Conversation explains why we should rethink introduced species. "Visions of protected dingoes hunting introduced donkeys and Sambar deer in Australia, or protected wolves hunting introduced Oryx and horses in the American West, can give us a new perspective on conserving both native and introduced species. Nature doesn’t stand still. Dispensing with visions of historic wilderness, and the associated brutal measures usually applied to enforce those ideals, and focusing on the wilderness that exists is both pragmatic and optimistic." Read on |
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8th August 2017
Introduced megafauna are rewilding the world Our new study soon to be published in Ecography shows that introduced populations of megafauna are providing crucial protection for this threatened group of species. In fact, on every continent there are more megafauna species today compared to the end of Pleistocene. Australia lost it's entire megafauna guild tens of thousands of years ago, but is now home to 8 species, including the world's only population of wild dromedary camels. Many of these introduced species are prey for apex predators such as dingoes. Read on |
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20th July 2017
The Grass is Greener on Predator Friendly Farms New article by Dr Arian Wallach (Dingo for Biodiversity Project) was recently published in Carnivore Damage Prevention News. It features the work of the some of the world's leading predator friendly farmers, thinkers, organisations, and businesses. It appears in Issue 13 on page 47, and can be freely accessed. Read on |
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10th March 2017
Today in the Anthropocene magazine "As consumers wise up about the food products they buy, they’ll expect higher sustainability standards—and that includes how farmers treat the wild animals that share their land." News article about our recent study on causes of cattle mortality on a predator friendly station (ranch) in central Australia, that had been managed by Dingo for Biodiversity Project ecologists for two years. Read on |
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9th February 2017
New publication in the Journal of Mammalogy What is the main cause of cattle mortality? Well it isn't dingoes! For two years, Adam O'Neill and Arian Wallach (Dingo for Biodiversity Project) managed Evelyn Downs, one of Australia's largest predator-friendly cattle stations. During this period, they methodically recorded the causes of death for each cow. In this newly published study, together with Dr Daniel Ramp, they analysed the drivers of cattle mortality at Evelyn Downs, and found that dingoes were a minor cause of death, and that predation nearly vanished after 6 months of ending predator control. Instead, most cattle mortality was caused by husbandry problems associated with hot and dry conditions. Download |
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1st February 2017
Today in The Anthropocene magazine "Does killing wild dogs to prevent conflict with humans actually make problems more likely? So suggest researchers who analyzed dingo control programs on Australia’s Fraser Island. “Paradoxically, our attempts to resolve conflict are actually the driving force of conflict,” says Adam O’Neill, an ecologist with the Dingo for Biodiversity Project and lead author of the Pacific Conservation Biology study of dingo control." Read on |
