{"id":930988,"date":"2026-10-17T03:10:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T03:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/930988\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T03:10:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T03:10:19","slug":"research-shows-dingoes-in-was-great-sandy-desert-protect-native-wildlife-by-eating-feral-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/930988\/","title":{"rendered":"Research shows dingoes in WA’s Great Sandy Desert protect native wildlife by eating feral cats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Djinaparli and her family first sensed a foreign presence when dingoes howled at planes soaring high above the desert.<\/p>\n

The Mangala woman and her family were unaware of colonisation, lived with dingoes and led a traditional life near Punmu in the Great Sandy Desert \u2014 about 1,400 kilometres north-east of Perth.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Djinaparli and her family lived in the Great Sandy Desert until 1972. The group lived with dingoes that they trained as hunting dogs.\u00a0 (Natasha Clark)<\/p>\n

But in the early 1970s, a harsh drought swept the Great Sandy Desert, a vast area of about 300,000 square kilometres, stretching from the Kimberley coastline to the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n

The family group of around 20 people trained dingoes to hunt for them, but as the severe drought dried up regional waterholes, the dogs brought back fewer emus, kangaroos, and black-headed pythons.<\/p>\n

Survival meant leaving the desert.<\/p>\n

\"Wide<\/p>\n

Australia’s second-largest desert, the Great Sandy Desert stretches about 300,000 square kilometres from Eighty Mile Beach on the Kimberley coastline to the Northern Territory. (Natasha Clark)<\/p>\n

Djinaparli was 12 when her family walked hundreds of kilometres to Anna Plains Station, bringing her pet dingoes \u2014 that she called family \u2014 from the bush into station life.<\/p>\n

“We had them since they were little puppies, and we grew them up; they slept with us,” Djinaparli said, speaking Mangala, with translation from Nyangumarta Ranger Lisa Toby.<\/p>\n

Djinaparli’s new home is Bidyadanga, which is Australia’s largest Aboriginal community, 200km south of Broome.<\/p>\n

At 68, Djinaparli sits in the Nyangumarta rangers headquarters courtyard in Bidyadanga, the wet season’s heat pressing down on concrete over pindan.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Nyangumarta woman and ranger Lisa Toby sits in Bidyadanga courtyard with Mangala woman Djinaparli, discussing how she grew up in the Great Sandy Desert with dingoes.\u00a0 (Natasha Clark\u00a0)<\/p>\n

To honour their “old people’s” relationship with dingoes, the Nyangumarta Rangers commissioned the Wartaji (“dingo” in Nyangumarta) research project in partnership with Central Queensland University in 2022.<\/p>\n

The project aims to understand how dingoes move, what they eat, their environmental role, and interactions with feral cats and foxes across the Nyangumarta Indigenous Protected Area of the Great Sandy Desert.<\/p>\n

Djinaparli says she is happy about the project, as rangers load cameras, tracking collars and scat kits into four-wheel drives and head for their latest stint in the desert.<\/p>\n

Heading out bush<\/p>\n

The research involves driving hundreds of kilometres inland from Bidyadanga and setting up camp.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nyangumarta rangers and researcher Linda Harper camp deep in the Great Sandy Desert to carry out the Wartaji Project.\u00a0 (Natasha Clark)<\/p>\n

Camel tracks ring the camp as rangers wake in their swags, surrounded by scrub and terracotta-coloured sand.<\/p>\n

They drive into the trackless country.<\/p>\n

Nyangumarta ranger Roberta Hunter grips her GPS as the car jolts over rock and dunes, with ranger coordinator Sarah Wilson at the wheel.<\/p>\n

Hidden in the spinifex is a camera. Ms Hunter explains the motion-activated devices track dingoes, which have been recorded eating feral cats.<\/p>\n

\"Female<\/p>\n

Nyangumarta ranger co-ordinator Sarah Wilson removes sim cards from cameras capturing footage of dingoes deep in the Great Sandy Desert. (Natasha Clark)<\/p>\n

“It’s good when the dingoes eat cats, because they are killing our precious animals, like the Greater Bilby and desert mouse,” Ms Hunter said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Cameras planted deep in the Great Sandy Desert have captured dingoes hunting feral cats. (Supplied. Nyangumarta Rangers)<\/p>\n

A single feral cat roaming in the desert kills more than 700 small animals per year, according to WA’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.<\/p>\n

Nyangumarta ranger Elliot Hunter said the cats were growing much larger than usual.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Nyangumarta ranger Elliot Hunter gripping a Y pole, the instrument used to restrain dingoes when they are being collared. (Natasha Clark)<\/p>\n

“They are bigger than normal pet cats; last week I saw one that was similar size to a dingo,” he said.<\/p>\n

The average weight of a domestic cat is four kilograms; however, feral cats are regularly reaching six kilograms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They are really destroying our habitats, killing our birds, reptiles, and marsupials,” Mr Hunter said.<\/p>\n

“It’s good the dingoes are bringing them down.”<\/p>\n

\"Grey<\/p>\n

Mr Hunter says the feral cats in the Great Sandy Desert are on average larger than domestic cats.\u00a0 (Supplied: Nyangumarta Rangers)<\/p>\n

The project’s scat research over the last six months shows dingoes now get nearly 30 per cent of their diet from feral cats.<\/p>\n

Ms Hunter is not surprised the dingoes are hunting the cats.<\/p>\n

“We look after the dingoes, and then they look after us, our country,” she said.<\/p>\n

A long day worth it\"A<\/p>\n

Driving through the trackless Great Sandy Desert to collect camera monitoring devices can take hours because of the undulating landscape. (Natasha Clark)<\/p>\n

It takes hours of driving in the relentless heat to return to camp.<\/p>\n

One group blew four tyres crossing the rough country; another set out to help.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Wartaji project lead researcher Linda Harper along with Nyangumarta rangers. (Natasha Clark)<\/p>\n

Lead researcher Linda Harper said it was the perfect time to track how four dingoes were migrating with modern satellite collars.<\/p>\n

“We are currently looking at their movements; they’re called Venus, Elliot, Carlo and Robin,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Elliot, Carlo and Robin are a family; we have located their den.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Nathan Hunter and Linda Harper briefly restrain a dingo to attach a satellite tracking collar.\u00a0 (supplied, Nyangumarta Rangers\u00a0)<\/p>\n

The dingo trio were found in Walyarta \u2014a dried-up wetland leading into a dry salt lake where rangers suspect dingoes have been digging underground for water.<\/p>\n

“They travel around 80 kilometres a week together,” Ms Harper explains.<\/p>\n

“There’s enough water and food for them not to travel far.”<\/p>\n

Venus, by contrast, covers more than 180 kilometres a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rangers found her in one of the driest patches along the Callawa Track on the desert’s north-western edge.<\/p>\n

Night has fallen by the time the last ranger vehicle returns, headlights bobbing across the desert like mobile moons, as the vehicle rolls into camp.<\/p>\n

But the long days do not bother Mr Hunter.<\/p>\n

“Looking after these dingoes, it’s a special connection to our old people,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Djinaparli and her family first sensed a foreign presence when dingoes howled at planes soaring high above the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[292049,497747,64,63,46285,497749,127422,497745,97411,497744,2406,80852,497743,337,128,45,497748,497746,338],"class_list":["post-930988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animal-research","tag-are-dingoes-native","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dbca","tag-department-of-conservation-biodiversity-and-attractions","tag-dingo","tag-dingo-research","tag-dingoes","tag-djinaparli","tag-feral-cats","tag-great-sandy-desert","tag-nyangumarta-rangers","tag-research","tag-science","tag-wa-news","tag-what-do-dingoes-eat","tag-where-is-the-great-sandy-desert","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}