Movements and habitat selection by wild dogs in eastern Victoria

Abstract

To investigate movements and habitat selection by wild dogs we attached satellite-linked global positioning system (GPS) units to nine wild dogs (Canis lupus dingo and Canis lupus familiaris) captured in eastern Victoria in summer 2007. Units estimated locations at 30-min intervals for the first six months and then at 480-min intervals for six more months. DNA testing revealed all these wild dogs to be related. Home ranges of males were almost three times larger than those of females (males: 124.3km2±56.3, n≤4; females: 45.2km2±17.3, n≤5) and both sexes preferred subalpine grassland, shrub or woodland at the landscape and home-range scales. Wild dogs were recorded more often than expected wi..