The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust of Australia Report ... · that wolves were bad? In some places, usually those with minimal human disturbance, some carnivores provide a vital

The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust of Australia

Report by Dr Brad Purcell – 2010 Churchill Fellow

Working with livestock producers for sustainable management of carnivores

I understand that the Churchill Trust may publish this report, either in hard copy or on the Internet or both, and I consent to such publication. I indemnify the Churchill Trust against any loss, costs or damages it may suffer arising out of any claim or proceedings made against the Trust in respect of, or arising out of the publication or any report submitted to the Trust and which the Trust places on a website for access over the internet. I also warrant that my Final Report is original and does not infringe the copyright of any person, or contain anything which is, or the incorporation of which into the Final Report is, actionable for defamation, a breach of any privacy law or obligation, breach of confidence, contempt of court, passing-off or contravention of any other private right or of any law.

Signed: Dated: 16 November 2011

Sustainable management of carnivores 2010

Brad Purcell i

‘What needs to be changed are people and organisations and institutions’

Professor Susan G. Clarke, Yale Large Carnivore Group. 22nd August 2011

Cite this document as: Purcell, BV 2011 Working with livestock producers for sustainable

management of carnivores Final report to the NSW Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, Canberra.

Front cover image: Cape buffalo feeding in a fiery sunset, Okavango Delta, Botswana.


Brad Purcell ii

Executive summary Brad Purcell PhD Adjunct fellow Building K8, School of Natural Sciences University of Western Sydney Locked Bag 1797 Penrith NSW 2751

Email: [email protected] Phone: +61 2 4570 1648 All photos and diagrams were taken or created by the author.

Working with livestock producers for sustainable management of carnivores The aim of this Churchill fellowship was to study techniques being used by international institutions to coexist with carnivores, for the benefit of Australian livestock producers and the environment. These techniques may help Australians to coexist with dingoes, Australia’s native wild dog, and indirectly aid in the conservation of Australian plants, animals, and landscapes by maintaining populations of a top order predator.

Outcomes of the fellowship During my fellowship I visited institutions, trusts, government and non-government organisations and individual scientists that comprise the forefront of innovative ecological research on carnivores. My major finding is that conflicting perceptions on what is ‘right’ or ’moral’ for self and earth drastically influences dingo (wild dog) management. It is a value based identity crisis between livestock producers and conservationists that neither can win because the arguments are value based, and it is critical to resolve this conflict to move forward.

Recommendations to manage carnivores sustainably Recommendations for carnivore management in Australia include: 1. Amend all state and territory legislation to provide protection to dingoes, as I defined

them by their functional ecological role in my book Dingo, to be consistent with the definition of a native animal in the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999;

2. Establish programs at state and federal levels to monitor dingoes more closely to identify numbers of breeding pairs (that define a pack), quantify the scale of the dingo issue and potential threats to livestock;

3. Develop management strategies based on the scientific data collected; 4. Identify and mitigate barriers to animal migration; 5. Develop a management plan to coexist with dingoes that is ecologically sustainable; 6. Educate and train livestock producers and government agencies in the use of ecologically

sustainable carnivore management techniques to minimise livestock depredation; 7. Commence scientific research to investigate differences in the ecology and behaviour of

dingoes undisturbed by lethal control and those populations disturbed by lethal control; 8. Increase community education, awareness and involvement in dingo management; 9. Establish an independent committee to review legislation, policies and management

plans involving wild dogs and dingoes; and 10. Increase collaboration with international wildlife research institutions.

Implementation and Dissemination During my fellowship I shared findings through videos distributed via electronic media. Since returning I participated at the Blue Mountains Pest Management Strategy community consultation, reviewed the draft NSW Wild Dog Management Strategy 2011/2015 (see appendix), and informed colleagues of the outcomes of my fellowship. I was interviewed for BBC wildlife magazine on defining dingoes and also ABC 630AM radio, Townsville, about management techniques for dingoes encroaching on suburbia. I will continue to disseminate my findings through publications and public speaking. I have also submitted three grant applications to implement the outcomes of my fellowship in Australia.


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Preface and Acknowledgements This report was written for an audience of everyday Australians so I have chosen to include a list of recommended readings rather than using citations and references. Much of the information provided is the result of personal communication, so I will refer to the person or persons with whom I was holding discussions where possible. In saying that, I acknowledge that some ideas put forth in this report were not my own (they came from the people listed below), and that in those circumstances I am a mere messenger. I was however privileged with hours of time in lieu between destinations to ponder over concepts or to discuss these ideas with locals. First and foremost, I would like to thank Professor Chris Dickman in Terrestrial Ecology, University of Sydney and Professor Robert Mulley in Animal Science, University of Western Sydney for the tremendous support and guidance they have provided.

I would also like to thank the various institutions, government and non-government organisations, and scientists and field staff that provided me with their valuable time, experience and with the opportunity to show me and discuss various aspects of carnivore management. I do not believe any Churchill fellow can express enough gratitude to the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust for the tireless work they perform to provide Australians with a unique opportunity to pursue their goal to make a difference for all Australians. It was incredible. I pondered for hours about what it is that the selection committee looks for in successful candidates. I had been informed that my passion and motivation to find a solution to a 200-year long battle with dingoes, or wild dogs as some people like to call them, was the tipping point. But I have to say that I think the panel sees more than that. I did not only learn from the people I visited, but I shared with them my personal insights and contributed to their understanding of the issues and of the ecology of canids. The more people I met and spoke with, the more I felt that I had been selected as an ambassador for Australia. The feeling I got from knowing that the selection committee believed in me, and supported my fellowship as a representative of Australians is incredibly inspiring and motivating. It is this inspiration and motivation that I am most grateful for.


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Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY II

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III

CONTENTS IV

LIST OF FIGURES V

1. INTRODUCTION 1

2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF MY CHURCHILL FELLOWSHIP 4

WHAT NEW KNOWLEDGE DID I HOPE TO GAIN FROM MY PROJECT? 4 WHY DID I NEED TO TRAVEL OVERSEAS TO OBTAIN THIS KNOWLEDGE? 5 HOW WILL MY PROJECT BENEFIT THE AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY? 5

3. PROGRAMME 30 JUNE – 27 AUGUST 2011 5

BOTSWANA PREDATOR CONSERVATION TRUST: OKAVANGO DELTA 30 JUNE – 15 JULY 6 WILDLIFE CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT: UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 18 – 21 JULY 6 THE WOLF CENTRE: UNITED KINGDOM 22 JULY 6 MAMMAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE: POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 25 – 29 JULY 7 DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE: IDAHO, USA 8 – 14 AUGUST 7 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK: WYOMING, USA 15 – 21 AUGUST 7 YALE LARGE CARNIVORE GROUP: WYOMING, USA 22 –27 AUGUST 8

4. OUTCOMES OF MY FELLOWSHIP 8

BOTSWANA PREDATOR CONSERVATION TRUST: OKAVANGO DELTA 9 WILDLIFE CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD: UNITED KINGDOM 14 THE WOLF CENTRE: UNITED KINGDOM 17 MAMMAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: BIAŁOWIEŻA, POLAND 18 DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE: IDAHO, USA 22 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK: WYOMING, USA 24 YALE LARGE CARNIVORE GROUP: WYOMING, USA 25

5. RECOMMENDATIONS, IMPLEMENTATION AND DISSEMINATION 27

FURTHER READING 29

APPENDIX 30


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List of figures Figure 1: The vital functional role of top order predators shown through direct and indirect

effects in a basic version of the web of life .................................................................3 Figure 2: African wild dogs hunting approximately 60 km outside their known territory .......9 Figure 3: African wild dogs resting near the den in between feeding the pups ......................10 Figure 4: Two African wild dog pups, showing one side of their unique white markings that

were being recorded ...................................................................................................10 Figure 5: Three lions in Moremi Game Reserve, Okavango Delta, resting by an elephant

carcass .........................................................................................................................11 Figure 6: The cheetah cub and mother together, me with the sedated mother, the cub looking

for its mother and the two males when they arrived in pursuit of the cub ...............12 Figure 7: Dr Peter Apps explaining the gas chromatography – mass spectrometry reading and

one of the readings and dog camp founder Dr John ‘Tico’ McNutt with Dr Apps and myself at the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust office in Maun, Botswana ......14

Figure 8: Meeting Professor David Macdonald and Professor Claudio Sillero from the Wildlife

Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford .................15 Figure 9: Shaun Ellis, the man who lives with wolves, explaining behaviours of wolves whilst

they fed on a carcass ...................................................................................................17 Figure 10: Tracking a Eurasian lynx in Białowieża National Park, Poland ................................21 Figure 11: Entrance to the strict reserve Białowieża Primeval Forest, Poland ........................21 Figure 12: Defenders of wildlife staff, advisors and myself at a community consultation wolf

coexistence workshop, Carey, Idaho USA ...................................................................22 Figure 13: Tracking a wolf pack with Defenders of Wildlife staff Matt Furber and Pete Haswell

in the Sun Valley, Idaho USA .......................................................................................22 Figure 14: Great Pyrenees guard dog looking out for potential predators near Ketchum, Idaho

USA ..............................................................................................................................24 Figure 15: Gray wolf in the Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park .....................................24 Figure 16: Gray wolves feeding on a bison carcass after crossing the Hayden River in

Yellowstone National Park ..........................................................................................25 Figure 17: Public forum on the Wyoming Gray Wolf Management Plan, Jackson, Wyoming

USA ..............................................................................................................................27


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1. Introduction In every nation around the world, humans and carnivores are in conflict. The conflict ranges

widely, from foxes in the United Kingdom attacking toddlers, through to coyotes in the USA

and dingoes in Australia encroaching on urban areas. Great white sharks continue to keep

some people from swimming in the seas, and if the great whites open and close their jaws on

an unsuspecting human, calls for culling emerge despite their protection under international

agreements. Then there are ‘lions and tigers and bears’ that have scared children since before

the production of Wizard of Oz and for some reason people tend to be scared of the big bad

wolf. Who is afraid of the big bad wolf anyway? You? Have you ever been face to face with a

‘big bad wolf’? Where does your fear come from? More to the point, who started the rumour

that wolves were bad?

In some places, usually those with minimal human disturbance, some carnivores provide a

vital function for ecosystems. The function could also be deemed a structure: something that

completes the web of life and sits at the top of the food chain to regulate the animals below

that cannot self regulate their own population. Obviously carnivores would deliver the same

functional mechanism in every landscape if provided with the opportunity, but there are

guilds of carnivores and of herbivores and each guild has a different function in their portion

of the web. The web, the first world wide web that evolved billions of years before the

current ‘world wide web’, has however been fragmented following colonisation and

disturbances by humans. The relatively new concrete and bitumen shell in some places

around the earth leaves no room for normal ecological processes to occur.

The first function of carnivores is to eat herbivores that would otherwise eat too much

herbage (grass and leaves) if they were not preyed upon. The herbivores instead would

increase their population size because they have higher breeding rates, until resources were

fully consumed. Then the herbivores would probably be at higher risk to contract disease,

cause erosion and eutrophication of waterways and slowly but surely lower the productivity

of the landscape. Secondly, the highest trophic order, apex carnivores, also known as top

order predators, self regulate their own population when they compete with each other for

vital resources such as food, water, territory, protective habitat, and a mate to increase the

biological fitness of their genes. Carnivores therefore do not only keep the prey in check, but

they keep themselves in check too. This is the clearest example of natural selection, the


Brad Purcell 2

survival of the fittest, the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. Kill or be

killed. Eat and be eaten.

This aptly named vital role (Figure 1) is evident where large carnivores for instance, have been

either reintroduced or managed to maintain their functional ecological process. Marked

differences in ecosystem health can be seen from Yellowstone National Park in the USA

where wolves were extirpated and later reintroduced, to the Mongolian deserts that once

were grasslands before wolves were exterminated, in parts of Africa that have lost their

predators and even in the arid zone of Australia where dingoes have been replaced with top

order herbivores (such as sheep, cattle, rabbits and kangaroos). The vital functional role is

however exactly what many humans protest against, because in being ‘intelligently designed’1

to kill herbivores, predators appear to be working against the grain of human based economic

schemes that have grassroots in agricultural primary production systems.

1 These words were selected and placed in inverted commas because they are used as propaganda to explain evolution in a religious context.


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Figure 1: The vital functional role of top order predators shown through direct and indirect effects (connecting lines) in a basic version of the web of life. Top order predators affect the structure of the web through competition with middle and lower order predators. Through competition, top order predators help to save middle and lower order herbivores that middle and lower order predators prefer to prey upon. Through predation of the top order herbivores that would otherwise depredate the primary producing grasslands, the top predators provide structure and habitat for other predators, herbivores, and birds and invertebrates, and invariably maintain the health of soils.

Amongst reports from livestock producers and lobby groups that dingoes in Australia, and

wolves or other wild dogs in other parts of the world ‘killed our livestock’, and ‘are worse

than ever’ when the market value of livestock increases or decreases, it is rare to hear about

the flip side. How valuable and productive is their land? Has it already been degraded beyond

repair? Do wild animals have rights to access vital resources and enact their vital, functional,

ecological role? Who is responsible for the welfare of livestock, and of wild animals? If wolves

kill stock, is it because the wolves were not killed or because the stock was poorly managed

and/or neglected? Do dingoes kill sheep because they think there are too many of them

eating the grass and disrupting the balance?

Top order predator

Grasslands & forests

Top order herbivore

Middle order predator Small order predator

Soils

Middle order herbivore

Small order herbivore

Birds Invertebrates

Disease

Disease


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This study was approved to learn new techniques that may help Australians to coexist with

Australia’s top order native predator, the dingo. Although genetic and archaeological

evidence have indicated that dingoes were introduced to Australia approximately 5000 years

ago, the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

defines native animals in Australia as those that were present before 1400 AD. Therefore the

dingo is approximately 4401 years native! Other evidence that supports the relevance of

maintaining populations of dingoes as ecologically functional, top order predators is that the

rate of extinction for Australian mammals did not significantly increase until the introduction

and development of agricultural production systems. Such development included land

clearing and other modifications to habitat, and the introduction of domestic and wild

animals and plants. All of this information can be accessed in federal State of the Environment

Reports produced by independent scientific committees. These reports and others produced

by Natural Resource Management Boards, who may I add are often scheduled with the

destruction of ‘wild dogs’, clearly showed agricultural practices to have had significant

negative and almost irreversible impacts on Australian landscapes and their ecosystems. In

studying human-carnivore conflicts from Africa to the United Kingdom, and the United

Kingdom to Europe and then America, I hope to deliver solutions for longstanding problems

in management of dingoes, Australia’s wild dogs2, and in the management of Australian

ecological landscapes. Problems include livestock depredation and associated real or

perceived economic threats, and the degradation of ecosystems and landscapes in Australia,

including the extinction of many native plant and animal species.

2. Aims and objectives of my Churchill Fellowship

What new knowledge did I hope to gain from my project? My objective was to learn and develop proactive, ecologically sustainable carnivore

management techniques. For instance, implementing farmer compensation programs and

learning techniques to develop holistic rural community collaboration projects are two areas

that could make a difference in Australia because at the moment they are skewed to benefit

industry. Identifying how government agencies can approach controversial wildlife issues to

simultaneously achieve holistic management outcomes for livestock producers, rural

2 In submitting scientific articles for publication in international peer reviewed scientific journals, nomenclature of dingoes has been an issue for some reviewers. The issue is that if the animals are called ‘dingoes’, then public scrutiny generally condemns lethal control, but if they are called ‘wild dogs (including dingoes and their hybrids)’, then there is less public scrutiny and increased opportunity for lethal control by wildlife managers.


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communities and ecological communities will benefit Australia and Australians in subtle but

relevant ways in the long term.

Why did I need to travel overseas to obtain this knowledge? Dingo management in Australia is currently in a transition phase between controlling dingoes

for livestock production enterprises and conserving dingoes for nature conservation.

Community collaboration, compensation, reserve design & novel predator monitoring and

deterring techniques have not yet been pursued in Australia. Overseas institutions have

already implemented these techniques with success.

How will my project benefit the Australian community? Many Australians may not realise but dingo/wild dog control is a major cost to taxpayer

money. From 2007-2008, $9.5 million was spent on dingo control in Australia. Furthermore,

Australia's national sheep flock that comprised 170 million head in 1990 has declined

dramatically to 76.9 million head in 2008 due to market fluctuations. Despite the diminishing

industry and identified threats of climate change to food production (or vice versa), rural

communities continue to perceive dingoes as the problem. By introducing techniques to

minimise livestock losses and increase employment opportunities, financial and social aspects

of rural community industries may be maintained. Not only may the rural communities

benefit, but also so may fragile Australian ecosystems. Experts agree that dingoes may

outcompete and prey upon introduced species, such as foxes, cats, goats and pigs that have

exacerbated native mammal extinction. Living with a keystone species like the dingo is

important to lessen or reverse the Australian extinction crisis and to assist regeneration of

degraded Australian landscapes, such as the Murray-Darling Basin.

3. Programme 30 June – 27 August 2011 The program scheduled for my Churchill travel fellowship included visits to:

Botswana Predator Conservation Trust: Okavango Delta, Botswana

Wildlife Conservation Research Unit: University of Oxford, United Kingdom

The Wolf Centre: Combe Martin, United Kingdom

Polish Academy of Sciences Mammal Research Institute: Białowieża, Poland

Defenders of Wildlife: Idaho, USA

Yellowstone National Park: Wyonming, USA


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Yale Large Carnivore Group: Wyoming, USA

Each organisation and their program are described below.

Botswana Predator Conservation Trust: Okavango Delta 30 June – 15 July Dr John ‘Tico’ McNutt founded the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust (BPCT) as the

Botswana Wild Dog Research Project in 1989. The camp is highly regarded amongst carnivore

ecologists and is one of the longest running conservation research projects in Africa. African

wild dogs are listed as endangered with a decreasing trend on the IUCN Red List of

Threatened Species. Visiting the BPCT was important because they had conceived the idea of

talking to the African wild dogs in the language of wild dog scent markers to deter them from

properties with livestock. Known as the bioboundary, this technique will hopefully one day be

used to mimic the borders of an African wild dog pack. In repelling or deterring African wild

dogs from crossing that boundary, the BPCT expect to successfully stop livestock depredation

events by African wild dogs and stop the lethal control of African wild dogs for long term

conservation of this species.

Wildlife Conservation Research Unit: University of Oxford 18 – 21 July The Wildlife Conservation Research Unit is based in the Department of Zoology at the

University of Oxford. The WildCRU scientists are renowned world experts in carnivore

ecology. I was interested in the expert opinions of the chief scientists, the doctoral and post-

doctoral research candidates, and in the environmental sustainability training programs that

they run for rural pastoralists in developing countries. In addition, WildCRU houses and

provides support for the IUCN Canid Specialist Group (CSG) that is also part of the IUCN

Species Survival Commission.

The Wolf Centre: United Kingdom 22 July The Wolf Centre is an education facility to teach people about behaviours of wolves and of

domestic dogs. To develop a unique understanding of wolves and wolf behaviours, Shaun Ellis

lived with wolves for two years, learning how to communicate with them, sharing their food,

and living by their rules. My interest was in learning potentially abstract concepts that are not

available from everyday scientists, and hearing Shaun’s views on wolves from living amongst

them.


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Mammal Research Institute: Polish Academy of Sciences 25 – 29 July Białowieża Primeval Forest is a remnant lowland deciduous temperate forest ecosystem that

was originally conserved as an area for hunting by monarchs and dignitaries and it is reserved

as part of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation Man and Biosphere

reserve system. The Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences studies all

aspects of mammalian biology and interactions with the forest and surrounding areas. My

interest in wolf management at the MRI was in relation to the use of migratory corridors to

maintain ecological connectivity for wolf migration. In providing movement corridors, wolves

and other animals can maintain genetic variability and reduce the risk of a genetic bottleneck

within metapopulations.

Defenders of Wildlife: Idaho, USA 8 – 14 August Defenders of Wildlife use science-based, results-oriented management strategies and policies

for wildlife conservation. In Idaho, Defenders of Wildlife work alongside livestock producers

to facilitate holistic landscape management and wolf conservation. Defenders of Wildlife

implement various proactive wolf management programs to minimise livestock depredation

by wolves, and community education programs to reduce tension with producers. These

include compensation programs to reimburse livestock owners for their losses in the event of

wolf predation, promotion of acceptable science based wolf restoration plans and

collaborating with livestock producers on advisory boards to determine and understand the

issues and develop suitable management practices. The program I went to learn about was

the Wood River Proactive Project. The goal of the project was to reduce livestock losses to

wolves using various non-lethal tools and techniques. With a focus on increasing tolerance by

livestock producers to wolves, Defenders hope to reduce conflict and maintain or increase

productivity.

Yellowstone National Park: Wyoming, USA 15 – 21 August Yellowstone is the world’s first national park, established on 1872. Gray wolves were

reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park to reverse the impacts of large ungulates on the

landscape. This week in the fellowship was relatively unplanned because I wanted the

freedom to explore various aspects of wolf recovery, and management of the oldest national

park on earth. In studying top order predators it is important to assess the entire ecosystem,

rather than the species itself, to gain insight for effective management plans.


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Yale Large Carnivore Group: Wyoming, USA 22 –27 August

Visiting the Yale Large Carnivore Group will be of benefit during my fellowship because their

goal is to facilitate coexistence between people and carnivores. They deal directly in practical,

cultural, and ecological areas through researching policies, and political and economic

processes. Conservation efforts cannot ignore those aspects and the specific social contexts

within which they occur. Successfully addressing these human dimensions depends on our

ability to find creative ways to protect species in sustainable ways through an inclusive,

participatory process with people who live and work in carnivore habitat. When I visit Jackson

Hole I will work mainly with Professor Susan Clark from Yale University.

4. Outcomes of my fellowship It was overtly evident from my fellowship that there are numerous and various techniques

that will help Australians to coexist with dingoes. These techniques may also be cheaper,

more cost effective to implement, and benefit both livestock producers and Australian

ecosystems. During my fellowship I participated in science and applied science, desktop

research, abstract conceptualisation, international natural resource management programs,

and spoke with people from international education organisations and committees that

review, produce and disseminate international policies for protection of natural resources.

Management of wild dogs around the world in general is entering a new phase because the

benefits of their conservation are so visible since wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone

National Park. One of my major observations is that although Australians have started to

make progress we are probably 30 years behind other countries. One of the most prominent

pieces of legislation for wild dogs in NSW, the Wild Dog Destruction Act 1921 is too old to

have any meaning in degraded Australian landscapes of 2011 so this act should be abolished

and replaced with an act that is suitable for the 21st century.

I also observed that many of the issues that Australian livestock producers and natural

resource management organisations face are prominent in the nations I visited. The threat of

predators to prey will never go away, nor will the battle between competitors for prey. A

grizzly bear fending off wolves from a carcass is no different to farmers fending off criticism of

their inherent right to do what they want with the lands that their fathers’ fathers have

handed down. And suddenly we are at the crux of the issue. Two different groups with


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opposing perceptions on what is ‘right’ or ’moral’ for self and earth, arguing over an identity

crisis.

Botswana Predator Conservation Trust: Okavango Delta The Botswana Predator Conservation Trust provided insight into numerous and various

aspects of carnivore ecology, behaviour, research and management. In addition I learnt a

great deal about vehicle maintenance and management of a research station. Most of my

time at dog camp was spent conducting research with the various scientists. Each day we

would check for VHF telemetry signals from lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas and African wild

dogs fitted with VHF telemetry transmitters and our movements were often dependent on

those signals … or lack thereof. In the case of lions and leopards, the scanning also played a

role in camp safety. If signals were not detected then we would drive 20 minutes to a tourist

camp to look for the signals again and hope that along the way we either crossed paths with

the individuals we were looking for or detected a signal to follow. One morning in fact, we

crossed paths with three African wild dogs that were approximately 60 km away from their

territory hunting (Figure 2).

Figure 2: African wild dogs hunting approximately 60 km outside their known territory. The dog in the middle has a beige collar around its neck.

I was surprised in Africa that we could drive within 10-15m of the animals to make

observations (Figure 3). In Australia the dingoes would run at the sight of a vehicle 100m

away, and I have even watched some dingoes leave an area at the sound of a vehicle. Much

of my time was therefore spent at den sites, filming and photographing pups to determine


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how many pups were born in each pack, and to identify individuals where possible. The white

markings on wild dogs apparently are the only consistent markings that do not disappear with

age, and recording the white markings is a reliable technique for future identification and

population monitoring. Identifying individuals may be a little more difficult this year than

other years, however, because one pack had 11 pups, with large amounts of white markings

on most of them (Figure 4). We visited this pack a few times over the two weeks and on one

occasion when postdoctoral researcher Dr Neil Jordan joined us, I was able to see how

samples are collected for the bioboundary research project. Basically a female urinated when

we approached the den site so Dr Jordan parked the car between the den and the urine. He

cautiously got out of the car, and collected the sample for later testing in the laboratory.

Figure 3: African wild dogs resting near the den in between feeding the pups.

Figure 4: Two African wild dog pups, showing one side of their unique white markings that were being recorded.

Counting the pups was also a hard task because we could never be fully certain that all of the

pups had emerged from the den. On one occasion we arrived at a den site with one individual


Brad Purcell 11

adult male sitting near the entrance. Within five-minutes, the female returned to the den site,

greeted the male, entered the den and picked up a pup, and then walked back in the

direction she had come from with the pup tittering in her mouth. We watched her move her

offspring and the following day we found her new den site and continued to monitor the

pups. Why she moved the pups however is one of those questions that we may never have an

answer to.

A short time later the adult wild dogs suddenly left the den and went hunting. We followed

them as best we could but as the dogs moved so quickly, we could only get brief glimpses of

them threatening prey and testing prey for weaknesses. Life in dog camp was much like this

each day, providing various opportunities to collect data. For instance, some lions had found

a carcass from a large bull elephant so we went to identify the lions and record any necessary

information (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Three lions in Moremi Game Reserve, Okavango Delta, resting by an elephant carcass.

Whilst in the Okavango Delta I was also witness to some incredibly rare events. For instance,

on one occasion when I was working with the cheetah researchers, we saw the first two

rhinos to recolonise the Okavango. Tico, the founder of the African wild dog research project,

had never seen rhinos in the Okavango, and he has been conducting research in the area for

more than 20 years. On my last night I saw a male and a female leopard interacting, which

was considered rare by the other researchers.


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Then there was the event with cheetahs. Doctoral candidate Femke Broekhuis who was

studying interactions between cheetahs, lions and hyenas was finalising her research project

at the time, and retrieving collars from each of the species. The first cheetah that she darted

was a female with a cub. Whilst mum was sedated, the cub continued to call for her and

started to slowly wander off (Figure 6). I was in the car responsible to monitor the safety of

the cub from lions or other predators and was shocked when the cub started to run and two

large male cheetahs suddenly arrived on the scene in pursuit of the cub (Figure 6). The first

thought that came to mind was infanticide, where the males were going to kill the cub to

reduce genetic competition. I impersonated a cub calling for its mother by whistling that

distracted the males for a moment, but we still could not see the cub moving. We finally

found the cub alive, sitting about 10m from the males. Apparently most reports of infanticide

amongst cheetahs are anecdotal and other research has indicated that the males want to use

the cub to meet the mum. This was the case on this occasion when mum arrived, the males

quickly knocked her to the ground and asserted their dominance.

Figure 6: The cheetah cub and mother together (top left), me with the sedated mother (top right), the cub looking for its mother (bottom left) and the two males when they arrived in pursuit of the

cub (bottom right).


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One of the males was then successfully sedated and its collar was replaced with a new one.

After successfully administering the reversal agent, the researchers starting the next study

realised that the VHF was not transmitting a signal and they were forced to sedate the male

again, but this time with Zolatil instead of Ketamine. Waiting for the Zolatil to reverse in

cheetahs is a six-hour process, so we had to wait in the area and scan for lions or other

competitors until 11PM. Even then, two researchers remained with the cheetahs until

daybreak when the cheetahs moved out of the area and disappeared in the morning light.

Whilst retrieving data from motion sensing cameras used at cheetah scent marking trees, I

was informed that after scientists had discovered the use of scent trees and reported their

results, livestock producers waited at those trees to kill the cheetahs. That dilemma and

others I experienced with darting the cheetahs, almost losing a cub and having to sedate one

cheetah twice makes me wonder when science and the resources to implement a study

outweigh the welfare of the animals. Researchers have discovered that dingoes trapped for

their study in Queensland had been suffering from foot necrosis (the premature death of cells

and living tissue), possibly due to lost blood circulation in the foot as a result of being

trapped, after they had killed the dingo to retrieve the data-logging collar. Tico had been

informed of this technique, and was laughing at the situation when he asked if I was the

researcher that kills the animal to retrieve the data. I informed him that I was not and that it

was common practice for Australian scientists to kill dingoes and wild dogs to retrieve results,

such as stomach contents and skulls for testing ‘purity’. At that moment, I felt ashamed that it

is an accepted practice in Australia.

After finishing my fortnight at dog camp, I was taken to the lab to discuss the biochemical

analysis component of the project. Dr Peter Apps showed me the gas chromatography - mass

spectrometry machine and described the results (Figure 7). The machine is not yet accurate

enough to detect all of the chemicals that the nose of a dog would be able to, but it is all that

is currently available for use. In addition, after detecting the markers, they need to be trialled

on wild dogs in the field to find out which marker tells other dogs to ‘keep out’ of an area.

Peter and his assistant have identified over a hundred compounds in the odours of wild dog

urine and faeces and have discovered differences between urine deposited at different

places, at different times, by different packs, and by different dogs within a pack. Now it

appears to be a problem of identifying which chemical patterns form the territorial signal

rather than which individual chemical sends the information. They have identified similarities

in chemical composition within packs, and differences in dominant animals between packs.


Brad Purcell 14

Figure 7: Dr Peter Apps explaining the gas chromatography – mass spectrometry reading (top left) and one of the readings (top right) and dog camp founder Dr John ‘Tico’ McNutt with Dr Apps and

myself at the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust office in Maun, Botswana (bottom).

Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, University of Oxford: United Kingdom Upon arriving at WildCRU, I met with Professor David Macdonald (Figure 8). Professor

Macdonald is also a Churchill Fellow so we spoke briefly about the fellowships, and other

research endeavours. At the time, David was busy advising the government about a push

from the farmers lobby to cull badgers, to decrease the chances of a tuberculosis outbreak.

Twenty years of badger studies showed that killing them was very negative and one of the

effects of lethal control on badger populations was increased prevalence of dispersal and

wider ranging movements. The threat of tuberculosis being spread therefore also increased.

In addition, more types of tuberculosis develop in fragmented badger populations living in

perturbed conditions, making the disease harder to control. Despite the evidence and expert

advice, the government announced it would proceed to control 150,000 badgers.


Brad Purcell 15

Figure 8: Meeting Professor David Macdonald (left) and Professor Claudio Sillero (Right) from the

Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford.

The next day I provided the WildCRU a presentation about my research on Australian dingoes

and everybody seemed quite impressed. Dr Chloe Strevens informed me that it covered the

interests of both Professor Macdonald and Professor Claudio Sillero (Figure 8), being

movement patterns, territory maintenance behaviours and dispersal behaviours. Professor

Sillero and I had a lengthy discussion about our research projects and canid management. We

discussed the effect of dingo/wild dog control in Australia and I suggested that it might

exacerbate the problems. I informed him that dingo researcher Dr Lee Allen has made

observations consistent with this hypothesis. Professor Sillero agreed and stated that it took

six years for pack stability to return following a rabies outbreak amongst the Ethiopian wolves

that he was studying. In terms of animal welfare, I informed Professor Sillero about the

observations of foot necrosis, and he advised that their traps are checked every two hours to

avoid adverse psychological and physical effects to the Ethiopian wolves. If dingo populations

are similarly effected, then dingo/wild dog management strategies should be reviewed to

avoid adverse psychological and physical effects.

Professor Sillero and I also discussed the effects of phenotypic plasticity (response of animals

to environmental conditions through both genetic and physical change within one

generation) and the effects on taxonomic classification of canid species. He advised that as

chair of the IUCN Canid Specialist Group, he is frequently requested to revise the taxonomic

status of some canid species. Based on recent evidence that indicates skull allometry,

phenotype and genetic population structure can vary dramatically based on environmental

conditions, he considers that he cannot approve such requests. If such requests were

approved, it may permit animal breeds to be classed as their own species. In my opinion, that


Brad Purcell 16

should not be permitted because such breeds have not formed under natural evolutionary

circumstances, they have instead been bred because they exhibit traits that interest some

people. In dingoes, those traits look like four white paws, a white tail tip and a tan/ginger

coat. It is therefore not surprising that opinions of what is a ‘pure’ dingo are so strongly

formed amongst Australians. The definition of a dingo is an issue in Australia because the

terms ‘hybrid dingoes’ and ‘wild dogs’ are used as leverage for lethal control, and that is why I

defined dingoes in my book (Purcell, 2010) by their functional ecological role and one annual

breeding cycle.

I had a similar interesting conversation with Dr Nobuya Suzuki. Dr Suzuki hypothesises that

such arguments to kill or conserve are value based, like the concept of conservation and the

business of livestock production, and nobody can win value-based arguments because they

are value based. There is no good or bad. There is no right or wrong. There is majority against

minority or a winner and a loser. I considered these concepts themselves require exploration

in Australia because winning and losing are based on perceptions. Dr Suzuki suggested that in

this case it is a battle of human rights against conservation and conservation will always lose,

even if the mindset of the conservationists is to assist humans in the long term. Dr Suzuki

highlights the need for livestock producers and conservationists in Australia to work together

to achieve a common goal. That goal being improved landscape productivity and biodiversity

through the sustainable management of carnivores.

Other key issues discussed by researchers at WildCRU included:

One researcher has walked 2500 km surveying for lions in central West Africa and

only found two.

Kenya Wildlife Service considers lions may be extinct in 10-15 years.

Leopard destruction permits in parts of Africa are awarded on little evidence and

solutions to mediate the problem relevant to dingoes include inspecting depredation

events within 24hrs, identify and destroy the individual animal that caused the

damage and work with farmers to improve herding techniques.

A better understanding of hunting techniques is required to manage large carnivores

more efficiently and holistically.

Environmental stewardship program similar to those implemented through WildCRU

could be used in Australia to maintain and increase biodiversity in rural areas through

incentives.


Brad Purcell 17

The Wolf Centre: United Kingdom Shaun Ellis at the Wolf Centre spoke of some very unique concepts and observations that he

learned during his time living with wolves. Contrary to popular opinion that science is the only

methods to make accurate observations, Shaun believes that to fully understand wolves, he

had to become a member of the pack. This was what enticed me to meet him – he was

different. I had already visited and would continue to visit research scientists that used

traditional methods to collect quantitative data for analyses and considered that my

fellowship may benefit from hearing his views.

Shaun had made observations of diet, pup development and training, howling, predation and

territory defence that I had not previously heard other scientists discuss (Figure 9). In terms

of diet, Shaun believes that prior to whelping or early nursing season, the wolves turned to a

milk based diet, such as calves. One observation relevant to the bioboundary technique, is

that Shaun believes the wolves will chase prey to maximise the release of adrenalin and

endorphins that change the flavour of the flesh and organs. Once consumed, these flavours

or odours become the chemical cues in scent marks. Another was that the dominant animals

wait behind the subordinates to watch the reaction of the prey or competitor and avoid

injury.

Figure 9: Shaun Ellis, the man who lives with wolves, explaining behaviours of wolves whilst they fed on a carcass, Combe Martin, UK.

On discussing the hierarchy of wolves, Shaun believes wolf packs have a decision maker, an

enforcer, a tester, a ‘numbers’ animal, a lookout and a nanny, hunters and an omega animal.

This system helps maintain pack mentality and stability and creates circles of development

teaching (cultural transmission) for juveniles. Fragmenting the system may cause


Brad Purcell 18

perturbations similar to those reported for badgers, and for dingoes in north west Western

Australia by Peter Thomson in the 1990’s.

In terms of management, Shaun stated that programs should be adjusted year to year and

even season to season to account for variations within the pack. For instance, locating,

rallying, defensive and recruiting howls could somehow be used to manage movements of

individual wolves. Howling assists in maintaining territory borders, along with scent marks

and sight when the competitors prepare for conflict at the final stage. Attacks on livestock or

other prey species are seasonal amongst wolves and dependant on the age of the pups, so

land and wildlife managers and livestock producers simply need to adapt their management

at those times. I demonstrated in my dingo research that there were seasonal variations in

diet and in movement patterns of unperturbed dingo populations, which may assist

Australian livestock producers in reducing stock depredation.

Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences: Białowieża, Poland Professor Włodzimierz Jędrzejewski whom I had contacted about visiting the MRI is currently

working on Jaguars in Venezuela, however, he was in Poland on the 24th July, when we had

scheduled to meet. British Airways had overbooked their flight to Poland, and when I arrived

there were no seats left available on the plane. Unfortunately, due to this delay I missed the

opportunity to meet with Professor Jędrzejewski.

Research by Professor Jędrzejewski and other scientists at the MRI revealed that forest

corridors are a necessary component in any conservation program for wolves because wolves

have large territory sizes and are predisposed to disperse if conditions are not favourable, or

if mates are not available. Negative impacts of man made structures such as roads and

railway on habitat and animal populations can be minimised and mitigated using

underpasses, overpasses, signage for awareness, and through a better understanding of types

of movement patterns.

For this aspect of my fellowship, I was provided a book written by Professor Jędrzejewski and

others titled Animals and roads: Methods of mitigating the negative impacts of roads on

wildlife. After I read this book, I came to the realisation that roads and railway lines in

Australia have severely fragmented habitat and populations of animals. This is not a new

observation, because I had previously studied habitat fragmentation as an undergraduate and


Brad Purcell 19

have seen examples in New South Wales, Australia, where the Roads and Traffic Authority

(RTA) have attempted to maintain habitat connectivity. Now I realise that they have not done

enough. For instance, think of the freeway between Sydney and the central coast. There are

bridges and opportunities for animals to walk under the roads using underpasses. What if,

however, there were animals that have movements limited to ridgetops? The characteristics

of underpasses and overpasses may also deter animals from using them. There was a strong

relationship for instance between the width of an overpass and the frequency of use by

animals. Habitat availability on an overpass may also deter or encourage animals to use the

passage. During discussion with the spatial scientists at MRI, I showed them the Australian

road network in Google Earth and searched the RTA website for information on animal

passages and crossings. Admittedly my search was not comprehensive but there appeared to

be a lack of information on the subject. Some reports had briefly mentioned the issue and I

am aware of fences used to deter animals such as koalas from attempting to cross roads

between Buladelah and Port Macquarie. Opportunities for dispersal and migration should

either be maintained or where possible, increased and not prevented. Wolves have however

managed to start dispersing without habitat connectivity in Poland, but the lynx have not.

One wolf being studied travelled 1500 km from East Germany, across the top of Poland to

Białowieża Primeval Forest and Belarus before the tracking collar failed or the wolf was killed

(c.f. www.polishwolf.org.pl).

At the institute I gave a presentation on my dingo research to staff and students. Once again

it was well received and some researchers confirmed my ideas associated with genetic

population structure, diet and patterns of movement. Other scientists at the Mammal

Research Institute such as Dr Krzysztof Schmidt, Deputy director of the Mammal Research

Institute and Thomasz Borowik, PhD Candidate, provided me with some very relevant insights

of studies that will contribute to understanding wolves. These included:

- Looking at the stress levels between ungulates in areas where wolves have

recolonised, have not yet recolonised and are currently recolonising;

- What is the perception of prey to predator and reactions of prey to scent of

predator; and

- Interference of humans with large carnivores because conservation goals

interfere with development of the country.

Conflicts however continue to arise. There is a compensation system in Poland that is not

working effectively due to administrative requirements to be awarded compensation.


Brad Purcell 20

Farmers prefer no predators and no problems and although depredation events are generally

local, some farmers make a lot of noise and exacerbate the scale of the problem. To conserve

the wolf in that sense it is acknowledged that some wolves need to be shot, especially since

some farmers believe that the government regards wolves to be more important than them.

Illegal hunting is another dilemma that can be managed by permitting wolf hunting but then

the wolves are still being killed and conservationists have to carry the burden of that sacrifice.

Similar to Australia, wolf management strategies in Poland may allow for shooting (or control)

to occur so that political tension between the government and the public is suppressed.

Polish scientists have observed that the wolf population is not increasing in areas where they

are not hunted as much as in areas that they are hunted.

In terms of connectivity there are trends showing that wolves living in bigger forests with less

fragmented habitat are not as big a problem as wolves living in fragmented habitats. The

connectivity is crucial to species longevity and genetic population structure. The MRI

scientists are very interested in dispersal related problems because they are linked to genetic

variability and therefore population strength of the species. Dr Matt Oliver, postdoctoral

fellow in genetics at the MRI, had other interesting insights into population genetics. In terms

of function he considered that dilution of genetic structure through hybridisation will make

matters worse, though contends that genes will be purified by natural selection in the wild. I

have hypothesised that natural selection may play a bigger role in dingo populations to revert

back to a ‘dingo like’ functional state, regardless of the extent of hybridisation. I raised this

possibility at the 15th Australasian Vertebrate Pest Conference in Sydney, 2011.

When I enquired as to our ability to coexist in the future with wolves or predators in general,

the response from MRI scientists was not overly optimistic and survival was dependant on

how the world develops . The distribution of humans, roads and habitats limits the

opportunities for predators and more roads will lead to more cars, and more people. It is

most important to document change because adaptation of predators to human settlement

may lead to new problems. The wolf population in Europe increased during periods of war

because they could scavenge human corpses, and then crashed again in the 1970’s.

In Poland, farmers are responsible for reducing the risk of livestock depredation and their

livestock should be put into safe zones at night to prevent attacks. In contrast, wolves will kill

one cattle beast per attack but they will kill numerous sheep packed tightly into a protected

fenced area. Wolf predation in Poland also changes seasonally and damages are most


Brad Purcell 21

pronounced in September/August when wolf pups become more active simultaneously with

the time of year calves are born. This is consistent with observations of wolves turning to a

milk based diet such as suckling calves by Shaun Ellis, in whelping/early nursing seasons.

Whilst in Białowieża I participated with the MRI in tracking a Eurasian lynx (Figure 10), and

was taken to see the guarded Białowieża Primeval Forest (Figure 11). During a meeting with

Dr Andrzej Zalewski, Director of the MRI, I was once again humoured by comments such as

‘only in Australia they use poison!’ Dr Zalewski’s background is the ecology and conservation

of carnivores, and he is of the opinion that genetics should be used to identify barriers to the

dispersal of invasive species, and the distance of dispersal. When planning migratory paths

that will intersect human infrastructure, it is important to first understand species habitat

selectivity, the density of prey species along the roads, and the density of preferred prey

within or adjacent to the migratory corridor.

Figure 10: Tracking a Eurasian lynx in Białowieża National Park, Poland.

Figure 11: Entrance to the strict reserve, Białowieża Primeval Forest, Poland.


Brad Purcell 22

Defenders of Wildlife: Idaho, USA The Defenders of Wildlife proactive wolf management projects are lead by Suzanne Stone,

who has been involved with wolf restoration since 1988 and assisted with the reintroduction

of wolves to Yellowstone National Park. My time with Defenders of Wildlife in the Sun Valley,

Ketchum, Idaho included two community consultation days (Figure 12), wolf population

monitoring (Figure 13), and an evening of livestock protection. Since 1998, the Defender of

Wildlife organisation has spent approximately USD $1 million on proactive carnivore

management using non-lethal measures to prevent conflict. Australia spent AUD $9.5 million

during the 2007-2008 financial year on lethal control of dingoes/wild dogs.

Figure 12: Defender of wildlife staff, advisors and myself together for community consultation wolf coexistence workshop, Carey, Idaho USA. (Image: J. Kauffman)

Figure 13: Tracking a wolf pack with Defenders of Wildlife staff Matt Furber (centre) and Pete Haswell (right) in the Sun Valley, Idaho USA.

I also attended the premiere of The phantom wolves of Sun Valley – a documentary on the

conflict between livestock producers and the Phantom Hill wolf pack that colonised the area

north of Ketchum. The documentary highlighted many of the same issues associated with

human-carnivore conflict. It also showed that the situation in America is more dynamic than


Brad Purcell 23

in Australia because hunters see other wildlife as a resource. Therefore it is not only the

livestock producers that feel threatened, the hunters feel like they are also threatened

because the wolves have caused the deer to seek protective cover and they are now behaving

more cautiously.

The American livestock producers are in a different situation compared with Australian

livestock producers because wolves are not the only large terrestrial predator like dingoes in

Australia. American producers also have to be cautious about depredation by cougars, bears

and coyotes. Admittedly dingoes have smaller home ranges than wolves and there is high

overlap between preferred habitat for livestock and preferred habitat by wolves. In addition,

native prey species preferred by wolves also share habitat with livestock, and they may

attract wolves into livestock habitat.

During the week, I worked alongside field staff to monitor the movements of wolves,

participate in discussions at community consultation events and contributed my expertise on

dingo ecology and management for application in wolf habitat. Defenders of Wildlife field

technicians were equipped to monitor packs of wolves and also equipped with wolf deterrent

devices. The devices included fladry tape, to set up as a fence to contain and protect sheep

during the night and cracker shells, radio activated guard boxes, air horns and radio telemetry

equipment. If wolves were present near the sheep the field staff would camp with the sheep

and monitor the proximity of the wolves to the herd. In addition they trained sheepherders in

the use of non-lethal wolf deterrents, and Great Pyrenees guard dogs were present amongst

the sheep to warn of approaching predators (Figure 14). The Great Pyrenees dogs are

probably twice the size of a dingo, and I cannot imagine a dingo attempting to fight one. As

dingoes are more nervous than wolves, I have confidence that all of the proactive sustainable

carnivore management techniques being used by the Defenders of Wildlife will work in

Australia successfully on dingoes. Furthermore, the program has been so effective that wolf

depredation on sheep has almost been eliminated. Australian livestock producers are still

suffering depredation events despite regular bi-annual baiting and reactive trapping control

programs.


Brad Purcell 24

Figure 14: Great Pyrenees guard dog looking out for potential predators near Ketchum, Idaho USA.

Yellowstone National Park: Wyoming, USA Ecologists were discussing the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park since

the 1970’s. It was apparent that elk were overgrazing and damaging seedlings and trees,

heavily impacting on the ecology of the park and had to be managed. Approximately 20 years

later, Canadian wolves were released, and in less than 10 years, the health of the ecosystem

had improved.

I first visited the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Centre in West Yellowstone. I also visited Rick

McIntyre in the Lamar Valley as he has the VHF telemetry equipment and expertise to track

wolves. . Mr McIntyre is a biological technician for the Yellowstone Wolf Project and has

tracked wolves for more than 3000 days consecutively. He was the point of contact to follow

the wolves in the valley and managed the wolf watchers, those tourists and devoted locals

that regularly tracked wolves living in the park (Figure 15).

Figure 15: Gray wolf in the Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming USA.


Brad Purcell 25

Dr Halfpenny was the next expert that I met. He has written over 25 books and videos and he

runs educational programs about natural history and ecology through A Naturalist’s World

(www.tracknature.com). Dr Halfpenny provides the public with comprehensive field guides so

that they can understand some aspects of the ecology of Yellowstone quickly and effectively.

When I visited the Hayden Valley I was lucky to arrive at the same time five wolves were

crossing the river to feed on a bison carcass (Figure 16). Here I met Bob Landis, wildlife

documentary producer and he spoke about his experiences with the wolves in Yellowstone.

Mr Landis informed me that the stories were documented on his videos. It was clear from

viewing the videos that they have documented behaviours previously unreported, which

suggests that as yet we do not fully understand the ecology and behaviour of wild wolves.

Australians therefore cannot expect to understand the impact that lethal control programs

have on dingo populations without the appropriate scientific studies.

Figure 16: Gray wolves feeding on a bison carcass after crossing the Hayden River, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming USA.

Yale Large Carnivore Group: Wyoming, USA On my visit to the Yale Large Carnivore Group, Jackson Hole I met Professor Susan

Clark. Professor Clark’s expertise is in development of policy, leadership and

leadership perspectives and political psychology. She stated that it was important to

find common ground and to achieve this I will need to explore community interaction,

perceptions, education and values.

During the week I met with a range of experts including:


Brad Purcell 26

Mike Jimenez, Wyoming Project leader, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Wolf recovery

program;

Jason Wilmot, Executive Director, and Rebecca Watters, Project Manager, The

Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative;

Erik Cole, Wildlife Biologist, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service National Elk Refuge;

Gary Harvey and Dave Cottle, Bridger-Teton National Forest, United States

Department of Agriculture Forest Service;

Louise Lasley, Public Lands Director, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance; and

Chris Colligan, Wyoming Wildlife Advocate, The Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

Mike Jimenez informed me that his role in wolf management is to maintain the middle

ground between American livestock producers and environmentalists because people like to

see wolves from their own perspectives. His aim is to ensure management plans are based on

science and a consensus of opinions so that perceptions and values are not included as part

of the plan. This is the middle ground I have been trying to achieve in Australia. By calling

dingoes ‘wild dogs’, ‘hybrids’ or ‘pure dingoes’ based on biased scientific data, perceptions

and values of livestock producers and dingo breeders are supported and dingoes are not

being managed holistically. If wild dogs, hybrids and pure dingoes are simply called ‘dingoes’

then we can start to manage them for their functional ecological role in Australian

landscapes.

Jason Wilmot and Rebecca Watters informed me that even when livestock producers receive

compensation they remain upset about the situation. It demonstrated to me that money

does not fix the situation. Erik Cole at the National Elk Refuge informed me that the numbers

of elk in their refuge each census is well above quota. It would appear that elk have instead

found areas where they are safe from hunters and predators. This is relevant because hunters

are claiming wolves have killed the elk and as a result, none are available to be hunted. In

discussing livestock management strategies with Gary Harvey and Dave Cottle at Bridger-

Teton National Forest, they suggested that if programs are not already in place, Australia

might benefit from developing vegetation management programs for livestock producers.

During meetings with Lousie Lasley and Chris Colligan we also discussed the development of

migratory corridors for protection of wildlife.


Brad Purcell 27

I also attended a public forum on the Wyoming Gray Wolf Management Plan (Figure 17). The

objective of the plan is to maintain a population size of at least 15 breeding pairs, and at least

150 wolves in the entire state of Wyoming. Similar to Australia, the debate was heated and

issues were not fully resolved.

Figure 17: Public forum on the Wyoming Gray Wolf Management Plan, Jackson, Wyoming USA.

5. Recommendations, implementation and dissemination

Key recommendations to work with livestock producers for sustainable management of

carnivores include:

1. Amend all state and territory legislation to provide protection to dingoes, as I defined

them by their functional ecological role in my book Dingo, to be consistent with the

definition of a native animal in the Commonwealth Environment Protection and

Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999;

2. Establish programs at state and federal levels to monitor dingoes more closely to identify

numbers of breeding pairs (that define a pack), quantify the scale of the dingo issue and

potential threats to livestock;

3. Develop management strategies based on the scientific data collected rather than using

anecdotal information;

4. Identify and mitigate barriers to animal migration to maintain genetic variability;

5. Develop a management plan to coexist with dingoes that is ecologically sustainable;


Brad Purcell 28

6. Educate and train livestock producers and government agencies in the use of ecologically

sustainable carnivore management techniques to minimise livestock depredation;

7. Commence scientific research to investigate differences in the ecology and behaviour of

dingoes undisturbed by lethal control and those populations disturbed by lethal control;

8. Increase community education, awareness and involvement in dingo management;

9. Establish an independent committee to review legislation, policies and management

plans involving wild dogs and dingoes; and

10. Increase collaboration with international wildlife research institutions.

During my fellowship I maintained a fortnightly blog (www.thedingotracker.blogspot.com),

and made short videos of each country that I visited that were distributed for viewing via

Facebook and email through YouTube:

Africa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mubeyqdpS0w;

United Kingdom http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=015eUZ2Zzwo;

Poland http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OpeBpZF27c; and

America http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXr5FrEHgfY.

Since returning from my fellowship I participated at the Blue Mountains Pest Management

Strategy community consultation, reviewed the NSW Wild Dog Management Strategy

2011/2015 (see appendix) and provided comments to relevant government departments to

consider. I have also met with colleagues to inform them of the outcomes of my fellowship. In

addition I was interviewed for a story on defining dingoes in the BBC wildlife magazine and on

ABC 630AM radio, Townsville about management techniques for populations of dingoes

encroaching on suburbia. I will continue to disseminate and implement my findings through

publications and public speaking where possible. I will also distribute my fellowship report to

colleagues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mubeyqdpS0w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=015eUZ2Zzwo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OpeBpZF27c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXr5FrEHgfY


Brad Purcell 29

Further reading Clark, TW 1997. Averting extinction: reconstructing endangered species recovery. Yale

University Press, New Haven and London. Clark, TW, AR Willard and CM Cromley (eds) 2000.Foundations of natural resources, policy

and management. Yale University Press, New Haven and London. Clark, TW 2002. The policy process: a practical guide for natural resource professionals. Yale

University Press, New Haven and London. Ellis, S 2010. The man who lives with wolves. HarperCollins, London. Halfpenny, J 1995. Snow tracking rare species (professional level). A Naturalist’s World,

Gardiner. Halfpenny, J 1996. Discovering Yellowstone’s wolves watcher’s guide. A Naturalist’s World,

Gardiner. Halfpenny, J 2003. Yellowston wolves in the wild. Riverbend Publishing, Helena. Halfpenny, J 2010. Tracking wolves the basics. A Naturalist’s World, Gardiner. Jędrzejewska B, JM Wójcik 2004. Essays on mammals of Bialowieża Forest. Mammal Research

Institute PAS, Białowieża. Jędrzejewski W, S Nowak, R Kurek, RW Mysłajek, K Stachura, B Zawadzka, M Pchałek 2009.

Animals and roads. Methods of mitigating the negative impact of roads on wildlife. Mammal Research Institute PAS.

Jędrzejewski W and V Sidorovich 2010. The art of tracking animals. Mammal Research Institute Polish Academy of Sciences, Białowieża.

Purcell, B 2010. Dingo. Australian Natural History Series, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne. Rose, DB 2011. Wild dog dreaming: love and extinction. University of Virginia Press,

Charlottesville and London. Sillero-Zubiri, C., M Hoffman and DW Macdonald (eds) 2004. Canids: Foxes, Wolves, Jackals

and Dogs. Status survey conservation action plan. IUCN/SSc Canid Specialist Group. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Smith, D and G Ferguson 2005. Decade of the wolf: returning the wild to Yellowstone, The Lyons Press Guilford, Connecticut.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1987. Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Plan. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Denver, Colorado.

Wyoming Game and Fish Commission 2011. DRAFT Wyoming Gray Wolf Management Plan. Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, Jackson, Wyoming.

http://www.zbs.bialowieza.pl/publikacje_en/?year=2004

http://www.zbs.bialowieza.pl/publikacje_en/?year=2009


Brad Purcell 30

Appendix Nathan Cutter

Invasive Species Unit | Biosecurity Branch Department of Primary Industries 161 Kite St Locked Bag 21 Orange NSW 2800

31 October 2011 Draft NSW Wild Dog Management Strategy Dear Mr Cutter, I have reviewed the Draft NSW Wild Dog Management Strategy and write to inform you that it is heavily biased, environmentally unsustainable and should be either re-written or discarded. The subject matter is too controversial to treat lightly, especially in respect to evidence that shows the functional ecological role top predators play in unregulated ecosystems. Whether your organisation disagrees with the most recent science or not is irrelevant. The science is available for reference and should be included within this management strategy to objectively create a framework for wild dog management that is holistic and employs the five objectives of ecological sustainable development. Furthermore, there are many incorrect statements, unsubstantiated claims and extensive reference to anecdotal evidence. Chapters eight and nine in my recently published monograph, Dingo (CSIRO Publishing 2010) has many environmentally sustainable management techniques that could be utilised in this strategy and I recommend you incorporate some of them into the NSW Wild Dog Management Strategy. If you would like to consult with me on this strategy, please feel free to call me on (02) 4570 1648 or 0403 492 148, or email [email protected]. Yours sincerely,

Brad Purcell PhD Adjunct research fellow University of Western Sydney

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust of Australia Report ... · that wolves were bad? In some places, usually those with minimal human disturbance, some carnivores provide a vital