New Guinea Singing Dog » Taronga Zoo

New Guinea Singing Dog
16-02-2008

Aim interested in knowing a few things about the pair of New Guinea Singing dogs that were captured in the Lavanni Valley (Southern Highland Province) in Papua New Guinea in the 1950s and brought to Taronga Zoo by a Mr. Troughton in 1957.


Most (if not all) of the NGS Dogs outside New Guinea origin from five caught in West Papua and sent to Germany in the 1970s to my knowledge.

I wonder if this species ever reproduced in Taronga? and for how long it was being kept there?

Thanks,

16-02-2008

Sebbe;
New Guinea Singing Dogs were "discovered" in 1957 by Ellis Troughton, a mammalogist with the Australian Museum (he was author of a ground-breaking book in 1946 titled "Furred Mammals of Australia") and brought to Taronga Zoo.

They were the pride and joy of the zoo's Director at that time, Sir Edward Hallstrom (and why not; they were named after him; Canis hallstromi. ) Later when it became rather obvious that they were a race of the domestic dog they became Canis lupus hallstromi.

They did reproduce for a few generations, and were, not surprisingly, housed in runs near the dingoes; but after Hallstrom's era as Director finished the zoo seemed to lose interest in them. No new blood was obtained and so they gradually died out.....