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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 32(1)

Movements and habitat selection by wild dogs in eastern Victoria

Alan Robley A D , Andrew Gormley A , David M. Forsyth A , Alan N. Wilton B and Danielle Stephens C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, Department of Sustainability and Environment, PO Box 137, Heidelberg, Vic. 3084, Australia.

B School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.

C School of Animal Biology, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.

D Corresponding author. Email: alan.robley@dse.vic.gov.au

Australian Mammalogy 32(1) 23-32 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM09030
Submitted: 20 October 2009  Accepted: 26 November 2009   Published: 17 March 2010

Abstract

To investigate movements and habitat selection by wild dogs we attached satellite-linked global positioning system (GPS) units to nine wild dogs (Canis lupus dingo and Canis lupus familiaris) captured in eastern Victoria in summer 2007. Units estimated locations at 30-min intervals for the first six months and then at 480-min intervals for six more months. DNA testing revealed all these wild dogs to be related. Home ranges of males were almost three times larger than those of females (males: 124.3 km2 ± 56.3, n = 4; females: 45.2 km2 ± 17.3, n = 5) and both sexes preferred subalpine grassland, shrub or woodland at the landscape and home-range scales. Wild dogs were recorded more often than expected within 25 m of roads and less often than expected within 25 m of watercourses. Wild dogs displayed higher-velocity movements with shallow turning angles (generally forwards) that connected spatial and temporal clusters comprising slower-velocity, shorter, and sharper turning movements. One wild dog travelled 230 km in 9 days before returning to its home range and another travelled 105 km in 87 days. The home-range sizes reported in this study are much larger than previously reported in south-eastern Australia. This finding, together with previous studies, suggests that the spatial scale at which wild dog management occurs needs to be reconsidered.


Acknowledgements

This project was funded by the Department of Primary Industries and was conducted under the Department of Sustainability and Environment Animal Ethics Committee approval no. 05/016 and the Department of Primary Industries Pest Animal Research/Education Permit RE48. We thank Vaughn Kingston for assistance in coordinating wild dog capture and Geoff Hodges, Jim Benton, Pete Lee, and Alan Sheean for capturing dogs. Comments by Geoff Brown, Lindy Lumsden, Alistair Glenn and two anonymous referees improved this manuscript.


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