On
this site you will find information and media relating to the Australian
Dingo.In
particular one Dingo, LOXIE
Pure DNA confirmed Alpine
Dingo, Loxie
, 'Lady Longsox'has been my
constant companion since she was 4 weeks of age.
The story of Loxie and her journey so far in her young life. Loxie is a 20 month old female Dingo with both Desert & Alpine heritage. She is cared for by Daz 'DingoDaz' & his partner of 16 years, Leigh. Loxie has changed their lives forever and they have chosen to take on a life changing commitment, not just to Dingo LOXIE, but also to Loxie the DINGO.
Leigh has written a short account of Loxie's first two years of life, and her adventures that involve not just crossing the Australian continent once, but three times.
Please click the link below to open the PDF file in your browser for viewing. Alternatively you may like to download the story and read it in it's entireity by clicking the link below or right clicking and 'save file as' to somewhere on your computer.
You will
find more information on the bottom of this page on how you can help save the Dingo from extinction. There are also links to hundreds of Loxie's pictures and Links to Daz's Youtube Videos. (Top Left) Including,
WANT TO DO SOMETHING TO HELP SAVE THE DINGO FROM EXTINCTION?
Contact former ECO WARRIOR, Now Highly paid Politician and make him do the job he's getting paid squillions to do:
Federal Minister for the Environment:
Mr Peter Garrett - Federal Minister of Environment Address: PO Box 249, Maroubra, New South Wales, Australia, 2035
Phone: (02) 6277 7640
Fax: (02) 6273 6101
Email: Peter.Garrett.MP@aph.gov.au
"Different"
I
knew I was different from a young age..never really found one path to walk if you like..had to get into everything..didn't finish
what I started..
It
wasn't till I turned 30 that I was diagnosed as being
ADHD(Attention Deficeit Hyperactivity Disorder)
But it
did explain a lot about my youth..and
7yrs later I must say I feel more in control..
Loxie
and Dingoes in general are much like ADD children in the sense that you
cannot let your guard down or they'll be off into whatever they want as
soon as your backs turned to amuse themselves or just to get you chasing
them..
Wherever I
go I take Loxie with me and she loves the attention she draws. To
have such a magnificent animal in my life can be so rewarding..butidefinately don't recommend them as a pet for
everyone.
"Loxie"
Nic
Papalia at the Western Australian Dingo Assocation
put me in touch with a Perth
couple, Simon and Sheah, who had just
become guardians of a litter of Dingo pups and were looking for suitable
homes for them. I met them that night I was so eager...
Loxiewas born on 11/08/2006 to a Pure 'Desert'
Dingo mother,
Honey
and a 'Alpine' father, Chibah , (photo to come) owned by Simon
and Sheah from Perth..
Loxie's Dad, Chibah , is son of
Teddy
and
his mate,
Dotley
at the Dingo Discovery center in Toolern-Vale
Victoria
run by Peter and Lyn Watson.
The
Meeting...
There
were 2 female pups..'Bunya'
and 'Longsox'..(named
by Simon & Sheah)
Longsox walked into the room nose in the air
sniffing away followed by her sister, bunya, both a little wobbly on
their feet but I couldn't believe how alert they were for 4 weeks of age.
I
picked up Longsox and Leigh
held Bunya...mum & dad Dingo came in to sniff the strangers as they
do. Chibah, instinctively sticking his sniffing
snout into my groin and giving an audible "huff!"
and walking off into the hallway, keeping a protective eye on
the procedings... Mum just walked in,
gave me a quick nudge, sniff and a 'whateva'
look and walked out, fairly disinterested and over the whole childcare
scenario..
Within
a few minutes of talking to Simon and Sheah,
Loxie had snuggled into my arm curled up like a cat, smiling &
snoring, whilst Bunya was a bit more active on leigh's
lap. It was too late... I had bonded with Loxie at that first contact. 'Bunya'?, 'Bunya' who? I knew instanly
that I would be Loxie's 'guardian' for the rest
of her life.
Her
name developed into Loxie because I have 3 Blue Heelers, who all
look like little 'Black Bears' and 'Longsox
' had golden colouring so I couldn't help but
think 'Goldylocks & the 3 Bears'..
So
Loxie as she is now known seemed to fit well ..Lady
Longsox when she poses for the camera...Foxy
Lox when she is flirting with a male..or
LOXIE!!!! when she runs off with something of
yours because you aren't paying her attention when she wants it!!...
Loxie
has a little Sister,
NUGGET.
Born 14th of June 2007, cared for by Barbara in Perth. WA.
The Australian dingo is a unique
family-orientated predator that has lived on this continent for
thousands of years and evolved alongside native prey species to
establish efficient and well balanced ecosystems.
Our dingo is the only remaining large
predator in
Australia
capable of keeping our wildlife healthy by keeping prey and pest species
in check. Unfortunately, like our Tasmanian tiger in our shameful past,
he is being vilified and killed off by powerful rural and hunting
lobbies that clasp an abundance of ignorance, cruelty and greed.
Paying the ultimate price of
insufficient action by the government to protect our wildlife, the
Tasmanian tiger is now forever gone. Our dingo is currently the only
native animal to be classified as "vermin", and is being regularily baited with the aerially dropped
super-toxin 1080. In Victoria,
there is even a $50 bounty in place on their scalps. If we do not
pressure our government to take immediate action to protect our dingo,
he will join the Tasmanian tiger as an extinct animal our future
generations will only be able to marvel at in old photographs.
As part of their campaign to exterminate
our dingo, rural lobbies spread myths to mislead the public about the
real nature of the animals. This makes efforts to drive dingoes to
extinction easier by eliminating resistance. The following are some of
the most common myths perpetuated, along with descriptions of what
represents reality:
Myth
#1
"Dingoes decimate native wildlife and ruin
ecosystems."
Reality:
Scientific studies of ecosystem
conditions on either side of the dingo fence contradict this claim. On
the side where dingoes are absent, kangaroos, wallabies, foxes and cats
are overpopulating and destroying vegetation and endangered small
marsupials. On the "useless" side where dingoes are present,
kangaroo and wallaby populations remain healthy and balanced, allowing
vegetation to regenerate; Foxes and cats are also suppressed as a
result of predation by dingoes, allowing small marsupials to thrive.
Our
dingo is beyond doubt Australia's keystone predator: The species which
preys on the weak and sick of the most adundant
prey species, keeping herbivore species from overpopulating and outcompeting one another. Dingoes have been doing
this job successfully for thousands of years. With this in mind, it is
absurd to suggest that they would suddenly pose a threat to
wildlife."
Myth
#2
"Dingoes are utterly devastating our sheep
industry."
Reality:
The reported annual losses of
sheep to wild dogs in
Victoria and
New South
Wales
are at only around 3600 and 1200. Given that
Victoria
and
New South
Wales
house upwards of 20,000,000 and 35,200,000 sheep, these losses could
barely even be represented by a crumb on a pie chart or a percentage of
just 0.02%. Vastly more sheep are lost per month during live export
trips.
Livestock
losses to wild dogs cost nowhere near as much as the continual baiting
of our dingoes with the super-toxin 1080, and show that there really is
no "wild dog problem" in Australia that can't be
solved by compensating farmers for losses and/or making them practice more
sensible husbandry using protective mesaures
such as flock guardians and exclusion fencing.
Myth
#3
"Dingoes are not native, and have been
proven to be just introduced feral domestic dogs from
Asia.
Therefore they are pests that need to be exterminated."
Reality:
Various studies on geological
records and samples of dingo mitochondrial DNA have shown that our
dingo has been present on the Australian continent for at least 3,500
years, probably up to about 12,000 years. This is a very long time in
the context of evolution and has been sufficient for the dingo to
evolve and adapt to the Australian environment. By any official
definition, the dingo is "native".
How
the ancestor of dingoes, shown to be the pale-footed Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes or Canisindica) by skull
morphology studies, arrived in Australia is unknown, can
only be speculated about and does not change the fact that dingoes are
essential components of Australian ecoystems
that must be protected if we wish to preserve our wildlife.
Because
dingoes still retain most characteristics present in Indian wolves, it
is also highly unlikely that they were subjected to any significant
form of domestication that would warrant labelling
them as "feral". Dingoes truly are Australia's own form of wolf.
Myth
#4
"Dingoes are vicious killers that attack
humans unprovoked."
Reality:
You can count the number of
fatal attacks of dingoes on humans in our entire recorded history on
just half a hand. Compare this to about 15,000 domestic dog attacks per
annum.
Dingoes,
like wolves in other parts of the world, have an inherent fear and
distrust of humans. They generally avoid confrontations with people and
flee at the slightest hint of trouble. This is considered by some
scientists to be the result of wide-scale persecution of wolves by
humans that began with the dawn of agriculture.
The
only incidents of "attacks" on humans by dingoes are recorded
in areas where they are habituated to humans by irresponsible people,
such as on
Fraser
Island. In those
incidents the dingoes have lost much of their fear of humans as a
result of feeding, and behaved more boldly when feeling threatened.
There are also incidents of habituated juvenile dingoes attempting to
play with people, which are misinterpreted as attacks.
Myth
#5
"Pure dingoes are largely extinct, so there
is nothing left worth perserving."
Reality:
Studies of wild dogs caught in Victoria have
supported the notion that the act of mating between wild dingoes and
domestic dogs, and consequent successful rearing of the offspring, is
actually a very rare occurance due to the
harshness of life in the wild and radical behavioural
and biological differences.
Because
of this, most hybrids caught only contain a few domestic dog genes and
perform the same crucial ecological role that pure dingoes do.
Hybridization with domestic dogs is a process that has occurred for
wild canine species throughout the world for thousands of years without
hampering their survival.
Please
have the courage to defend
Australia's endangered native
wolf before it is too late!
'
Please
contact the federal and state ministers for the environment and demand
that our dingo be removed from the vermin list and classed as a
protected native species instead.
