New Guinea Singing Dog - History and Classification

History and Classification

The first Singing Dog was taken from New Guinea in 1897. At that time many naturalists killed their specimens and studied them later. Such was the case with the first New Guinea Dingo, which was shot and killed by Sir William MacGregor on Mount Scratchley at an elevation of 2,133 metres (6,998 ft).

MacGregor sent both the skin and the skeleton, preserved in alcohol, to the Queensland Museum. He described the dog as 11.5 in (29 cm) at the shoulder and primarily black in colour. White markings trimmed the neck, the throat, chest and tip of the tail.

In 1911 C.W. DeVis assembled and studied MacGregor's specimen, along with Professor Wood Jones, followed by H.A. Longman in 1928. From 1897 until 1954, this single specimen comprised the scientific community's entire body of knowledge regarding the New Guinea Singing Dog. In 1956, Albert Speer and J.P. Sinclair obtained a pair of Singing Dogs in the Lavanni Valley. The dogs were sent to Sir Edward Hallstrom who had set up a native animal study center in Nondugi, and then on to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia.

There has been considerable controversy regarding the taxonomic classification of New Guinea Dingoes. In 1958, Ellis Troughton examined the two Singer specimens from the Taronga Zoo in Sydney. Subsequently, the New Guinea Singing Dog was classified as a distinct species and was named Canis hallstromi (in honor of Sir Edward Hallstrom). Singing Dogs have been reclassified several times and have variously been called Canis lupus hallstromi or Canis familiaris hallstromi. They have been classed as variants of the dingo or domestic dog. They have been called Canis dingo and Canis dingo hallstromi. Most authors class the New Guinea Singing Dog either as either a separate species or a domestic dog.

The NGSD is not genetically or ecologically exchangeable with any other canid population, and the NGSD is an evolutionarily significant unit. Mammal Species of the World lists these dogs as part of Canis lupus dingo, provisionally separate from Canis lupus familiaris.

Laurie Corbett, in his book The Dingo in Australia and in Asia (1995), concluded that dingoes were Canis lupus dingo, and as such, are descended from the Grey Wolf.

Dr. Alan Wilton and his co-researchers have proven Singers are genetically matched to Australian Dingoes.