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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Opportunity for PhD students
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, access to remote field sites in three global regions, and collaborations with international experts. The position is contingent on the candidate successfully enrolling at UTS and obtaining an Australian Government Research Training Program Stipend, or equivalent, starting 2019. Find out more |
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Predator friendly info sheet
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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Wild Australia
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! |
News
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27th September 2018
Today in The Atlantic feature essay on Dr Arian Wallach "I have come to the Evelyn Downs ranch to meet Arian Wallach, a conservationist who thinks there is too much killing in conservation. Wallach has come to this massive 888-square-mile ranch because it is one of the few places in Australia where people aren’t actively killing wild animals. Tough, outback Herefords share the landscape with kangaroos, wild horses, wild donkeys, camels, emus, cats, foxes, native rodents, dingoes, and very large antediluvian-looking reptiles called perenties." Read on |
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4th June 2018
Today in Yale Environment 360 Do Conservation Strategies Need to Be More Compassionate? "Some scientists and ethicists are criticizing traditional conservation strategies, which they say focus on saving valued species while discounting the lives of less charismatic animals. Will these advocates of “compassionate conservation” point the way to new approaches, or are they simply being naïve?" Read on |
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1st May 2018
Summoning Compassion to Address the Challenges of Conservation "Conservation of species must be guided by compassion for individual sentient animals". New essay by Dr Arian Wallach (Dingo for Biodiversity Project) and other members of the UTS Centre for Compassionate Conservation, just published in the prestigious journal Conservation Biology, highlights how protection of dingoes makes for a more compassionate conservation. Read on (Photography by Jennifer Parkhurst) |
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15th April 2018
Invisible Megafauna "A significant proportion of Earth’s wildlife has been erased, not from the world, but from our collective depiction of nature. Even the most noticeable animals, terrestrial herbivorous megafauna weighing 100–4,000 kg, have been made nominally invisible. Wildlife outside native ranges are conspicuously missing from conservation data sets, distribution maps, population estimates, and conservation statuses". New essay by Dr Arian Wallach (Dingo for Biodiversity Project) and colleagues published in Conservation Biology. Read on |
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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 |