New Guinea Singing Dog - Distribution

Distribution

The reported habitat of the New Guinea Singing Dog consists of mountains and swampy mountain regions of Papua New Guinea at an altitude of 2500 to 4700 meters. The main vegetation zones are the mixed forest, beech and mossy forest, sub-alpine coniferous forest and alpine grassland. Based on archaeological, ethnographic, and circumstantial evidence, it can be assumed that Singers were once distributed over the whole of New Guinea and later restricted to the upper mountains. Since there have been no verified sightings of these dogs in Papua New Guinea since the 1970s, these dogs are either rare, or possibly extinct. There were reports of Singers in the Star Mountains until 1976, and in 1989, Tim Flannery was able to take a picture of a black-and-tan dog in a Dokfuma. It is important to note that although Flannery made sightings of dogs, there was no way for him to verify them as pure or hybrid or that they were, in fact NGSD at all. In his 1998 book "Throwim Way Leg", Flannery states that Dokfuma (which he describes as subalpine grassland with the ground being sodden moss, lichens and herbs growing atop a swamp) at 3,200 meters elevation had plenty of Singing Dogs which could usually be heard at the beginning and end of each day. It is also important to note that the word "plenty" is a subjective term with meaning based on personal opinion with no scientific evidence provided. No count was taken in any scientific manner and no DNA testing has been conducted in order to verify purity. When alone in his campsite one day a group of canines came within several hundred meters of him. Flannery apparently did not have his camera along or ready since he reported no pictures taken. In 1996 Robert Bino undertook a field study of these dogs, but was not able to observe any wild Singers and instead used signs such as scats, paw prints, urine markings and prey remnants to make conclusions about their behavior. No DNA sampling was conducted. There have been reports from local residents that wild dogs have been seen or heard in higher reaches of the mountains. A more recent sighting was the fleeting glimpse of a dog at Lake Tawa in the Kaijende Highlands. Local assistants assured the researchers that the dogs at Lake Tawa were wild-living dogs since there were no villages near that location. It needs to be made clear, however, that "wild-living" does not necessarily mean that canines observed by natives are NGSD. It is possible that they are simply feral domestic dogs or NGSD hybrids.