{"id":166097,"date":"2021-08-07T20:28:15","date_gmt":"2021-08-07T18:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/?p=166097"},"modified":"2021-11-20T18:14:57","modified_gmt":"2021-11-20T17:14:57","slug":"original-new-guinea-singing-dogs-still-exist-in-the-wild-study-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/original-new-guinea-singing-dogs-still-exist-in-the-wild-study-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Original New Guinea Singing Dogs Still Exist in the Wild, Study Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New Guinea singing dog was first described in 1897, and became known for its unique and characteristic vocalization, described as a \u2018wolf howl with overtones of whale song.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Originally classified as a distinct species, Canis hallstromi, its taxonomy remains controversial in part due to the availability of only captive specimens for genetic analysis and debate regarding their origin.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OCkKkLSQVYg\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Though genetically similar to the Australian dingo, it represents a distinct population, as evidenced by both morphology and behavior.\u00a0Only 200-300 captive singing dogs exist in conservation centers, with none seen in the wild since the 1970s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe New Guinea singing dog that we know of today is a breed that was basically created by people,\u201d said senior author Dr. Elaine Ostrander, a researcher in the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEight were brought to the United States from the Highlands of New Guinea and bred with each other to create this group.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another New Guinea dog breed found in the wild, called the Highland wild dog, has a strikingly similar physical appearance to the New Guinea singing dogs.<\/p>\n<p>Considered to be the rarest and most ancient dog-like animal in existence, it is even older than the New Guinea singing dogs.<\/p>\n<p>In 2016, an expedition led by the New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation in collaboration with the University of Papua reported the existence of 15 wild dogs on the western side of the island near the open-cut Grasberg Mine, the largest gold mine in the world.<\/p>\n<p>A subsequent 2018 field study led to the collection of blood samples from three individuals in their natural environment, as well as demographic, morphologic, and behavioral data.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInitially we were searching for a dog that didn\u2019t want to be found,\u201d said James \u2018Mac\u2019 McIntyre, a zoologist and the director of field research at the New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Highland wild dogs are shy and reclusive. They reside in the rough rocky terrain above the tree line. We spent long days in thin air and often cold rainy conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The wild dogs\u2019 nuclear genome confirmed that the Highland wild dogs are the \u2018original\u2019 New Guinea singing dogs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDetailed DNA testing confirmed that the Highland wild dog is a direct ancestor of the New Guinea singing dog,\u201d said co-author Dr. Kylie Cairns, a conservation biologist in the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of New South Wales.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth canids are close genetic relatives to the Australian dingo \u2014 forming their own lineage unlike any other in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe found that New Guinea singing dogs and the Highland wild dogs have very similar genome sequences, much closer to each other than to any other canid known,\u201d said co-author Dr. Heidi Parker, a staff scientist in the National Human Genome Research Institute.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the tree of life, this makes them much more related to each other than modern breeds such as German shepherd or bassett hound.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The evidence of wild populations is welcome news to conservationists, who hope to diversify the gene pool of the captive population.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany had feared the population was extinct, or heavily mixed with domestic dogs,\u201d Dr. Cairns said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow that we know there is a wild population, programs can help diversify and conserve the captive population.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/early\/2020\/08\/26\/2007242117\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">results<\/a>\u00a0were published in the\u00a0<em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Suriani Surbakti et al. New Guinea highland wild dogs are the original New Guinea singing dogs. PNAS, published online August 31, 2020; doi: 10.1073\/pnas.2007242117<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sci-news.com\/biology\/original-new-guinea-singing-dogs-08826.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">article<\/a> was first published by Sci-News.com on 8 September 2020. Lead Image: Anang Dianto \/ New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>What you can do<\/h2>\n<p>Support \u2018Fighting for Wildlife\u2019 by donating as little as $1 &#8211; It only takes a minute. 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When making a donation you can designate for which type of initiative it should be used &#8211; wildlife, oceans, forests or climate.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New Guinea singing dog was first described in 1897, and became known for its unique and characteristic vocalization, described as a \u2018wolf howl with overtones of whale song.\u2019 Originally classified as a distinct species, Canis hallstromi, its taxonomy remains controversial in part due to the availability of only captive specimens for genetic analysis and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":166650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3680,5],"tags":[2825,3974,1277],"class_list":["post-166097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wildlife","tag-dingo","tag-singing-dogs","tag-wild-dog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/test-platform5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}