Alpine Dingoes devouring a kangaroo
Male Alpine Dingo on the right and a female on the left eating a freshly killed Eastern Grey Kangaroo
Canon EOS R5 Mk II with a Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM Zoom [ISO 2000, 500mm, f/8.0 and 1/1000])
In mid-August, I came across three Alpine Dingoes eating an Eastern Grey Kangaroo, which they had likely very recently killed. I was able to watch them feeding for a good hour. It was fascinating to see them consume the carcass, and targeting the easy to access parts, rather than areas that I thought would have more meat. I was also interested to see how there was a possible order in which the dingoes ate the kill.
The male appeared to be targeting the stomach lining while the female went for the head
Canon EOS R5 Mk II with a Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM Zoom [ISO 1600, 500mm, f/8.0 and 1/1000])
When I first saw the dingoes with the kill, the male was the only one eating, while the two females were lying on their stomachs either side of the carcass, with one about two metres away, and the other about twice that distance. They had their heads down, but I wasn’t sure if they were tired from a chase or waiting their turn to eat. The female that was closest was the first one to eat, and she went for the head, while the male, went for the posterior of the kangaroo, potentially the anus area. The female also came around to eat from that area, without any aggressive response from the male.
The female briefly turned away from the kill to walk a few steps towards me but after regarding me for a few seconds, returned to the kangaroo’s head.
While the female was biting into the head of the kill, the male opened the stomach through his ripping, and then pulled at the what appeared to be the kangaroo’s stomach. He seemed most keen to eat the stomach lining.
Both dingoes shared the kill
Canon EOS R5 Mk II with a Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM Zoom [ISO 1600, 500mm, f/8.0 and 1/1000])
I was surprised with what the dingoes appeared to be favouring, the male eating the stomach lining and female going after the head, although both had gone up through the kangaroo’s rear. I would have thought that the kangaroo’s rump or tail would have had more meat but maybe the fur made those areas hard to access. There was a wound on the tip of the kangaroo’s tail but that might have happened during the hunt.
There was no aggression between the male and female while they consumed the kill, and apart from them both eating from the rear of the kangaroo, they generally consumed different parts of the kangaroo.
The second female kept an eye on me from a distance
Canon EOS R5 Mk II with a Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM Zoom [ISO 1250, 500mm, f/8.0 and 1/800])
The second female moved away from the area of the kill when she noticed me. She circled around the area where I was and kept her distance from me.
Both dingoes would periodically looked at me
Canon EOS R5 Mk II with a Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM Zoom [ISO 2000, 500mm, f/8.0 and 1/1000])
While the male and first female generally kept eating the kangaroo, they would very occasionally look towards me. Often that would happen while they were chewing on something they had just torn from the carcass. Beyond those times, they were content to eat their meal without caring about me.
Looking back from a distance, the male had left the kill and both females were eating
Canon EOS R5 Mk II with a Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM Zoom [ISO 1000, 500mm, f/8.0 and 1/800])
Although the dingoes didn’t appear interested in me, I still backed away from them, rather than turning around and presenting my back. When I did turn around and walk away, they were still eating the kangaroo and not looking at me. Turning back for a look a bit later, I saw that the male had moved away from the kill and the second female was then eating.
This behaviour had more context for me because I recently listened online to an interesting talk about Alpine Dingoes hosted by the Conservation Council of the ACT, titled Understanding the Waragul (Dingo) - Evolution, Genetics, and Ecological Role. One of the presenters was James Vandersteen, a PhD researcher from the University of New South Wales who is studying the dingoes in Namadgi. He made the point that the dingo packs tend to stay in a single valley, and don’t travel between the major grassland valleys in Namadgi National Park. He thought that because each valley offers water and abundant wildlife, there was no reason for the resident dingo populations to move out of their home valleys. This kill, along with many scattered kangaroo bones along the valley floor, tends to prove that statement about access to food.
This was another amazing experience for me with the Alpine Dingoes in Namadgi National Park. The dingoes are majestic and beautiful animals that fulfil a key role of apex predator. There are no shortage of kangaroos in Namadgi, indicating that the ecosystem is working at that apex level. The dingoes are eating just enough kangaroos to keep the numbers in check but not decimating the kangaroo numbers. We are fortunate that we can travel not far from Canberra to witness a key animal behaviour of the apex land predator hunting for its survival.
