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She wasn't sure when basenji rescue asked to her take on the
singers.
"I was
real nervous about taking them because everything I had read
indicated they were extreme predators. I thought 'Oh no, what
have I gotten myself into?' but I couldn't have been more
wrong. They are the sweetest things we have ever been around.
"I have
been involved with rescuing dogs and working with dogs for
more than 20 years, and I have never experienced anything
like this," Landreth said.
Ancient
Past, Uncertain Future
Estimates
suggest there are only 100 to 200 New Guinea singing dogs
in captivity. The ancient breed still runs wild in the mountains
of New Guinea, a remote island off the coast of Australia.
They hunt down small game and have been known to scale a tree
in pursuit of prey.
Stone
Age relics show depictions of dogs looking similar to them,
and they remain largely unchanged from those fossil records.
"They
have been so isolated on New Guinea that there has been little
change; they are totally natural without man's intervention,"
said Landreth, a long-time dog fancier and humane society
worker in Brevard, North Carolina.
The outside world discovered the NGSD in 1957 when the first
pair was brought down from the New Guinea highlands and taken
to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. Originally declared
a unique species, they were grouped in 1969 with the Australian
dingo as a feral wild sub- species of the domestic dog. Because
breeding has subsequently declined.
No one
knows how many singers are still living in the wild. Rampant
interbreeding, destruction of habitat and an influx of domestic
dogs which are breeding with the singers, threaten their lives
in New Guinea.
As a result,
the future of the compact little red dogs is uncertain.
Landreth
and her husband, Lee Roy Landreth, now have five singers,
including two puppies. They have become devoted advocates
of preserving the breed and have convinced the Transylvania
County Humane Society to take up the cause. "As a humane society,
our goal is to limit the number of births of dogs and cats
and stop the overpopulation, but we decided we would do something
different with these dogs and devote ourselves to conservation
- to saving this breed and keeping it from extinction," she
said.
Landreth's
local group follows the lead of a national organization, the
New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation Society. The society has
members around the world devoted to keeping the breed around
forever.
The group's
founder, Janice Koler-Matznick of Central Point, Oregon, discovered
singers nine years ago while researching the origin of dogs
as a graduate student at California State University. She
read about the breed in the Atlas of Dog Breeds and wrote
to the book's authors to find more information. They referred
her to Dr. I. Lehr Brisbin Jr., senior ecologist at the University
of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. Brisbin has
been researching singers for years. Brisbin placed three singers
with Koler-Matznick, and the two have now joined forces on
exploring the breed's origins and in promoting a responsible
breeding program for singers.
They also
work to place singers in proper homes. "It takes a year sorting
through about 200 inquiries to find a handful of appropriate
homes. Most of these homes have to be pet homes where the
singer will be neutered/ spayed," Koler-Matznick said. "We
often get asked why, if they are so endangered, we encourage
people to neuter singers. Because of the small population
size, if all puppies produced by one pair were used for breeding,
their genes would quickly over-dominate, thus reducing the
genetic diversity in the next generation. Also singers make
much better pets if they are neutered/spayed."
Conservation
society members believe singers are a unique species, different
from wolves, dingoes and domestic dogs, and they hope to convince
others so the singer may be declared an endangered species
and protected.
A Singing
Sensation
The singer's
name comes from their unique vocalization, which is different
from that made by any wild or domestic dog. Research has shown
the singer's larynx is constructed differently. Their call
is a melodic yodeling similar to a wolf howl with overtones
of whale song. When in a group, one animal starts and then
others join on different pitches, each with its own unique
voice.
"They
truly sing with each other. One will start with the melody,
and the rest will join in with the harmony," Landreth said.
Other
singer behaviors that differ from wolves or dogs include dropping
their ears forward and down in submission rather than back.
Their play invitation is a "stalking" posture rather than
the wolf/dog play bow. They lower their entire bodies and
aim an intent, staring gaze at their playmate. They also have
an "open-mouth play bite" that has not been recorded for dogs
or wolves, but is seen in coyotes.
Singers
do not appear to be pack animals, like dogs and wolves. Their
carnassial tooth, the second lower molar, is larger, usually
greater than 10 percent of the length of the skull. Their
eyes are more light reflective than domestic dogs, shining
bright green in low light. As with the dingo, females average
one heat cycle a year, usually in late summer or fall, unlike
most modern domestic breeds that average two cycles a year.
The small
dogs weigh about 20 to 30 pounds and stand from 13 to 18 inches
high at the shoulder. They are born chocolate brown, but that
color lightens to a red or sandy color as they mature. There
are a few rare cases of black-and-tan singers. Breed members
have prick ears and curled tails. They clean themselves like
cats and have no doggy odor, Landreth said. Their life span
can be as high as 15 to 20 years, and despite the small genetic
pool, the breed has no known health problems.
Before
you start to think they are the perfect breed, there are some
things to consider before you adopt a singer. "They are escape
artists. We have to keep covers over their kennels or they
will climb right out. They are powerful climbers, and they
can also squeeze through small spaces," Landreth said.
Singers
should rarely be allowed to run loose. They are extremely
fast and if they catch sight of a bird or squirrel they can
disappear before you know it - and difficult to recapture
once gone. Although they are sweet and submissive around people,
singers retain their strong hunting instincts and are very
predatory. Puppies who are brought up with smaller dogs and
cats are usually fine, but older singers must be watched around
small animals.
Some can
be aggressive toward strange dogs, especially those of the
same sex. They love people and bond strongly with their owners,
but can be reserved around strangers. They need early socialization.
Older rescued dogs that received little interaction with people
can be difficult to socialize and place in homes.
NGSDs
are very intelligent and make entertaining companions, but
they need lots of mental stimulation or they start finding
their own ways to entertain themselves around your house.
"My best
analogy is they're like a cross between a cat and a monkey
in a dog suit," Koler-Matznick said. One would think such
a little known breed would not have the need for a rescue
organization. Unfortunately that is very much not the case.
The NGSD Conservation Society rescues many singers that exotic
breeders have obtained and are breeding as wild animals for
sale to other exotic breeders, zoos or even pet owners. Unscrupulous
breeders do not screen buyers or give them the proper education
about singers, and as a result, those people are often overwhelmed
with their unique characteristics and abandon them.
"With
rare exceptions, the private parties who get these undocumented
singers cannot cope with them," Koler-Matznick said. "They
do not put up adequate fencing and they let them run free
- and get killed. Or they turn them over to animal control
or humane societies. Because of their strong predatory instincts,
most animal control agencies do not even try to place them.
They just euthanize them."
All Landreth's
singers came from rescue situations, including her two house
pets, Blossom, 7 months, and Sausa, 6 months. The puppies
and their mothers were removed from the home of a man who
planned to put them in a mini-zoo.
"Obtaining
endangered species status for singers is of the utmost importance
to protect them from abusive situations," Koler-Matznick said.
"Unfortunately,
until singers are declared an endangered species and permits
are required to keep them, there is nothing we can do about
the irresponsible breeders, except try to find them, educate
them and get them to cooperate."
Whom
To Contact
New Guinea
Singing Dog Conservation Society
Steve Robinson
5160 Hyde Way
Cumming, GA 30047
Gadingo@bellsouth.net
Web site: http://www.canineworld.com/NGSDCS/
Rescue:
Joan Dalgleish
18849-60B Avenue
Surrey, B.C., Canada, V3S 7T6
e-mail: Lever@direct.ca
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