Dingoes play vital role in protecting animals from feral cats in desert

Djinaparli and her family first sensed a foreign presence when dingoes howled at planes soaring high above the desert.

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 — about 1,400 kilometres north-east of Perth.

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.

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.

Survival meant leaving the desert.

Djinaparli was 12 when her family walked hundreds of kilometres to Anna Plains Station, bringing her pet dingoes — that she called family — from the bush into station life.

"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.

Djinaparli's new home is Bidyadanga, which is Australia's largest Aboriginal community, 200km south of Broome.

At 68, Djinaparli sits in the Nyangumarta rangers headquarters courtyard in Bidyadanga, the wet season's heat pressing down on concrete over pindan.

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.

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.

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.

Heading out bush

The research involves driving hundreds of kilometres inland from Bidyadanga and setting up camp.

Camel tracks ring the camp as rangers wake in their swags, surrounded by scrub and terracotta-coloured sand.

They drive into the trackless country.

Nyangumarta ranger Roberta Hunter grips her GPS as the car jolts over rock and dunes, with ranger coordinator Sarah Wilson at the wheel.

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

"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.

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.

Nyangumarta ranger Elliot Hunter said the cats were growing much larger than usual.

"They are bigger than normal pet cats; last week I saw one that was similar size to a dingo," he said.

The average weight of a domestic cat is four kilograms; however, feral cats are regularly reaching six kilograms. 

"They are really destroying our habitats, killing our birds, reptiles, and marsupials," Mr Hunter said.

"It's good the dingoes are bringing them down."

The project's scat research over the last six months shows dingoes now get nearly 30 per cent of their diet from feral cats.

Ms Hunter is not surprised the dingoes are hunting the cats.

"We look after the dingoes, and then they look after us, our country," she said.

A long day worth it

It takes hours of driving in the relentless heat to return to camp.

One group blew four tyres crossing the rough country; another set out to help.

Lead researcher Linda Harper said it was the perfect time to track how four dingoes were migrating with modern satellite collars.

"We are currently looking at their movements; they're called Venus, Elliot, Carlo and Robin," she said.

"Elliot, Carlo and Robin are a family; we have located their den."

The dingo trio were found in Walyarta —a dried-up wetland leading into a dry salt lake where rangers suspect dingoes have been digging underground for water.

"They travel around 80 kilometres a week together," Ms Harper explains.

"There's enough water and food for them not to travel far."

Venus, by contrast, covers more than 180 kilometres a week. 

Rangers found her in one of the driest patches along the Callawa Track on the desert's north-western edge.

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.

But the long days do not bother Mr Hunter.

"Looking after these dingoes, it's a special connection to our old people," he said.