It’s not every day that a dog falls from the skies into your property. But that’s exactly what occurred to Wandiligong homeowners in Victoria, Australia, when they heard whimpers coming from their yard.
When they realized the small puppy didn’t belong to anybody, they brought him in and cared for him for 24 hours before transporting him to Alpine Animal Hospital. Everyone wondered if he was an abandoned dog, a lost fox, or a dingo puppy.
He also had unusual markings on his back, indicating that he was carried in the talons of a giant bird of prey, such as an eagle, before being dumped. The absence of other puppies in the area further shows he had been moved.
The 10-week-old fluffball underwent DNA testing to determine what sort of mammal he was. While the humans awaited the results of these tests, Wandi, the pup, was transported to the Australian Dingo Foundation’s Dingo Discovery Sanctuary in Victoria for care.
When the findings came in, they revealed that Wandi was a purebred dingo. This was good news for the sanctuary since he may now participate in their breeding program, which will help to protect his species.
Wandi, who is now four months old, is an alpine dingo, the variety most threatened with extinction. “Unfortunately, this kind shares the eastern coast areas… where 80 percent of the Australian people resides,” Lyn Watson, Director of the Australian Dingo Foundation, told ABC News.
“Not only is the alpine dingo’s environment fading to nothing, but our persecution of this species – because it regrettably resembles a dog – has driven this lovely alpine dingo dangerously near to extinction.” Tropical and desert dingoes are the other two kinds of dingoes.
A range of problems are threatening the extinction of the Australian dingo. Hunting, culling, inbreeding, and interbreeding with domestic dogs all result in hybrids and dilute the gene pool.
While many humans who have encroached on their habitat regard dingoes as a nuisance, they are vital to the overall ecology. For example, they hunt feral cats, which have become a major issue in Australia, therefore reducing the number of tiny native species killed by these invading felines.
Purebred dingoes like Wandi can assist to preserve the species, lowering the likelihood of extinction in the future decades.
“We’re basically keeping the genetic lines continuing until there’s a safe area where they can be rewilded,” Watson explained to CNN.
Dingoes have been present in Australia for millennia, having been brought there by Asian mariners some 3,500 years ago. They’re culturally and ecologically significant, as Wandi demonstrates, and just lovely, so let’s hope these animals can hang on.
You can keep up with Wandi’s shenanigans by following him on Instagram.
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