A pure bred dingo puppy has been discovered in Victoria, in what’s being called an ‘absolute miracle’.
The adorable looking animal has been called Sooty and is currently being cared for by experts at the Australian Dingo Foundation.
A farmer was walking in Jamieson, 190 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, and came across what he thought was a koala due to the puff of fur. However, when he got closer he realised it was an abandoned puppy. Sooty was just five to six weeks old when it was discovered.
Credit: Madi McKenzie/Australian Dingo Foundation
The animal was rushed to Australian Dingo Foundation for DNA testing to be done to work out what it was.
The tests came back showing Sooty had no traces of dog and belongs to the ultra rare breed of pure bred alpine dingo, which is a threatened species in Victoria.
UNSW Centre for Ecosystem Science molecular biologist Dr Kylie Cairns was responsible for conducting the tests and confirmed Sooty was indeed a purebred.
“He shows no evidence of domestic dog ancestry and he is a further reminder that wild dingoes do persist in Victoria,” Dr Cairns said.
Credit: Madi McKenzie/Australian Dingo Foundation
“It is troubling to see the term wild dog being so widely used for this native species because generally people do not realise that this term is used to lump dingoes in with roaming feral domestic dogs.”
Dingos are also vital for the local ecosystem as apex predators, however the location where the animal was found is an active hotspot for hunters to bait, trap and kill dingos, according to the ABC.
Sooty was given its namesake based off its ashen coloured coat and in honour of the Black Summer bushfires that ravaged parts of Victoria.
Sanctuary Supervisor Kevin Newman couldn’t believe his eyes when the DNA tests confirmed they had one of only a handful of purebreds.
Sooty joins Sassy at the Australian Dingo Foundation. Credit: Madi McKenzie/Australian Dingo Foundation
Australian Dingo Foundation founder and director Lyn Watson added: “To have another wild alpine dingo cub, testing as pure, randomly found just a year after Wandi, is an absolute miracle.”
Last year, another dingo puppy was found in a person’s backyard and experts believed an eagle likely accidentally dropped it from its talons.
It was named Wandi and was also taken to the Australian Dingo Foundation for testing. The tests came back showing it was a purebred alpine pup.
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