Activity and Habitat Selection of an Apex Predator in Semi‐Arid Rangeland Production Areas: Implications for Optimising Management Efforts

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ABSTRACT In the complex interplay between agriculture and wildlife, free‐living predators pose a unique set of challenges. In western New South Wales (NSW), free‐living canids (legislatively defined as ‘wild dogs’; Canis familiaris ; which currently includes dingoes, feral modern dogs and their hybrids) are managed due to their impacts on livestock production and other wildlife. Although there are divergent perspectives and ongoing debate regarding dingo taxonomy and their management, this paper is framed explicitly within the current taxonomic and NSW legislative classification of wild dogs. Our primary aim was to progress our understanding of wild dog movement ecology in the rangelands of western NSW, thereby providing actionable insights for more strategic and efficient application of current management practices. We utilised GPS tracking collars to record wild dog movements within both agricultural and conservation landscapes to better understand the habitat preference of wild dogs within the landscape. Wild dogs had an average activity area of 683.73 km 2 ( n = 11, days collared = 14–406 days) and moved an average of 15.43 km per day during the study and positively selected for drainage depressions. Such activity areas are much larger than those reported in other studies for the eastern and coastal parts of Australia. These results give land managers a better understanding of wild dog ecology and how they use landscapes in western NSW. For more efficient deployment of control effort, future management could be targeted at drainage lines. More broadly, our study again demonstrates how movement data can be used to help optimise management efforts.

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