Skin and bone: observations of dingo scavenging during a chronic food shortage
Benjamin L. AllenThe University of Queensland, School of Animal Studies, Warrego Highway, Gatton, Qld 4343, Australia.
Present address: South Australian Arid Lands Natural Resources Management Board, PO Box 2227,
Port Augusta, SA 5700, Australia. Email: ben.allen@saalnrm.sa.gov.au
Australian Mammalogy 32(2) 207-208 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM10012
Submitted: 16 April 2010 Accepted: 16 July 2010 Published: 15 September 2010
Abstract
Dingo (Canis lupus dingo and hybrids) diet studies primarily rely on analyses of prey remains found in stomachs or scats (i.e. faeces). However, dingoes are also scavengers, and doubt may remain as to whether or not a given item found in a stomach/scat was killed or scavenged. This paper briefly reports some incidental observations of dingoes scavenging cattle (Bos taurus), red kangaroos (Macropus rufus), wedge-tailed eagles (Aquila audax), and other dingo carcasses during a chronic food shortage. This confirms that diet studies may not be evidence for predation, and that dietary items collected during a discrete period may not actually reflect the period when the item died.
