That’s the key takeaway from a recent study led by UNSW Sydney, which found a 6-9% increase in dingo size over the past 80 years in areas where poison baiting is used.
The study, published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, compared the sizes of dingos living in areas where poison baiting occurred to areas without.
The scientists measured the skull sizes of almost 600 dingoes, a key indicator of size, in a field stretching from the Northern Territory to South Australia.
“Skulls from the baited regions grew by about four millimetres since poison baiting was introduced,” says Michael Letnic, lead author of the paper and professor in conservation biology and ecosystem restoration at UNSW Science. “This equates to roughly a kilogram in body mass.”
So, what’s driving the growth spurt?
Well, researchers believe a pesticide known as sodium fluoroacetate, commonly known as 1080, is part of the reason dingoes are growing.
They have concluded smaller dingoes need less poison for a lethal dose, so are more likely to be killed by baiting – leaving the larger dingoes to survive and breed.
The larger dingoes end up with the best share of the food and pass their genes on to the next generation. It just goes to show you – nature always finds a way!
