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Dingo poisoning reduces native animal numbers

Poisoning dingos - Australia’s top predator - is actually decreasing numbers of small native mammals such as bandicoots and marsupial mice.

Dr Mike Letnic and his New South Wales team found that when dingo populations are artificially reduced, there is greater activity from foxes, which prey on small marsupials and native rodents.

The number of kangaroos and wallabies also increases. Grazing by these herbivores reduces vegetation where ground-dwelling mammals live.

It is the first study to show how removing large carnivores can result in population outbreaks of herbivores and smaller predators and, in turn, a reduction in small native mammals.

Read more at UNSW Sydney

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