News Animals

Culling dingoes with poison may be making them bigger

Animals in areas with toxic baits are up to 9 percent larger than they were before exposure

Dingo from Australia

Dingoes (Canis lupus dingo) have been getting bigger since the introduction of poison baiting in western and southern Australia.

Peter Contos

By Jake Buehler

Australia’s dingoes are getting bigger, and it may be because of humans. New research suggests the change is happening only in places where the wild canine’s populations are controlled with poison.

The findings could illustrate for the first time that, when targeted with pesticides, changes to the physical traits of “pest” species can occur in bigger animals, not just insects and rodents.