New Guinea singing dog

New Guinea Singing Dog
New Guinea Singing dog
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Canidae
Genus:	Canis
Species:	C. lupus
Subspecies:	C. l. dingo

The New Guinea Singing Dog or Singer is a rare type of domestic dog that originally hailed from the mountains of Papua New Guinea and according to current state of knowledge differs from all other domestic dogs in some characteristics. Nearly nothing is known about the life of these dogs in the wild.

Every one of these dogs that lives outside of Papua New Guinea is a descendant of a very small group of dogs and it is possible that the populations in Papua New Guinea have completely mixed with domestic dogs of other descent.

Name and Classification

In common language use the New Guinea Singing Dog is mostly simply described as a dog (respectively a dog breed) or even feral dog. Apart from that they are also called Singers, Singing Dogs or Hallstromdogs. In New Guinea these dogs also have the following names: Waia, Sfa, Katatope, Kurr ona, Agl Koglma und Yan-kararop.

In 1957 these dogs were classified as a separate species Canis hallstromi (after Sir Edward Hallstrom) by Dr. Ellis Troughton, after the examination of two individuals in the Taronga Zoo in Sydney. Afterwards these dogs have been reclassified several times and as a consequence were called Canis lupus hallstromi, Canis familiaris hallstromi and were placed to Canis lupus dingo or Canis lupus familiaris. In addition they were also called Canis dingo and Canis dingo hallstromi. The majority of authors assigned the New Guinea Singing Dog to a separate species or to the domestic dog. In Mammal Species of the World these dogs are currently listed as part of Canis lupus dingo which is itself classified as a domestic dog, albeit provisionally separate from Canis lupus familiaris.

Physical description

Compared to other species of the genus Canis the New Guinea Singing dog is described as relatively short-legged and broad-headed. On average these dogs have a shoulder height of 31 to about 46 cm and a weight ranging from 9 to 14 kg. Dewclaws on the rear legs are unknown for these dogs. Outside of New Guinea, the dogs that supposedly most closely resemble the Singer are purebred Shiba Inus.

Limbs and spine of Singers are very flexible and they can spread their legs sideways of about 90 degrees. The only other known domestic dog with a similar flexibility is the Norwegian Lundehund. Furthermore, they can rotate their front and hint paws more than other domestic dogs which enables them to climb trees with thick bark or branches that can be reached from the ground; however their climbing skills don’t reach the same level as those of the gray fox.

Night-picture with noticeable visible green-blacing tapetum.

The eyes are almond-shaped, angled upwards from the inner to outer corners with dark eye rims. Eye color ranges from dark amber to dark-brown, with green blacing Tapetum.

Newborns have a fur color of dark chocolate brown with golden spots and a reddish tint, which changes to light brown at the age of six weeks. The color of fully-grown dogs shows itself at the age of 4 months. For adult dogs in the wild, the colors brown, black and tan or black were reported, all with white points. For dogs in captivity, the colors brown, black with tan on the snout, legs and belly and dark (brown with a strong upper layer of dark-tipped guard hair) could be verified. The variant of brown includes: light brown, reddish-brown or reddish-yellow with lighter shades on the belly, inner surface of the legs and the ventral brush of the tail. Sides of the neck and zonal stripes behind the scapula are golden. Black and very dark guard hair is in general lightly allocated over the hair of the spine, concentrating on the back of the ears and the surface of the tail over the white tip. The snout is always black on young individuals. In general all colors have white markings underneath the chin, on the paws, chest and tail tip. About one third also have white markings on the snout, in the face and on the neck. Brindled individuals have not been observed. At age 7 years the black snouts turn gray.

Vocalization

The barking of these dogs is only of low variability and has no subgroups. When they are kept with "bark-happy" dogs, they partly adopt that behavior, like observed at the Kiel Domestic Animal Institute in Germany, by barking more frequently henceforth.

The New Guinea Singing Dog has a distinctive shriek-like howl, which is characterized by a sharp increase in pitch at the start and very high frequencies at the end. According to observations made by Ortolani, the howling of these dogs can be clearly differentiated from that of Australian dingoes and differs significantly from that of grey wolves and coyotes.

Single howler.

An individual howl last for 0.5 to 5 seconds (3 seconds on average). At the start the frequency rises and stays rather stable for the rest of the howling, but normally shows abrupt changes in frequency. Modulations can change quickly every 300 to 500 milliseconds or every second. Five to eight overtones can generally be distinguished in a spectrographic analysis of the howling.

During chorus howling one dog starts and other join the howling shortly afterwards. The howling is well synchronized in the most cases and the howls of the individuals end nearly simultaneously. Spontaneous howling is most common during the morning and evening hours.

A trill with a distinctly "bird-like" character is emitted during high arousal. It is a high-frequency, pulsed signal whose spectral appearance suggests a continuous source that is periodically interrupted and might last as long as 800 milliseconds. Such a sound is not known for any other canid; however, a similar sound (with lower frequency) has been described for a dhole at the Moscow Zoo.

Behavior

A dog at the Cleveland Zoo.

In general Singers show the same behavioral patterns as other canids. Since they are regarded as feral and have been/are "predominantly" left to their own devices in Papua New Guinea, but were/are fed in the villages with food scraps, carried around by children, possible serve as food, they were/are therefore influenced by the Melanesians. Up to date there are no observations of their group-mechanisms in their place of origin and no examinations on how much the Melanesians have influenced their development, therefore an assessment of their behavioral characteristics respectively abnormalities is difficult. Flannery’s short report from the year 1988 about dogs in the mountains of Papua New Guinea is regarded as the only available report on direct observation on wild specimen. He described them as "extraordinarily shy" and "almost preternaturally canny". According to Robert Bino (a student from the University of Papua New Guinea) these dogs use their resting places under roots and ledges in New Guinea only sporadically. Bino assumed that these dogs are highly mobile, search for food alone and one dog therefore might use several hiding places in its home range.

During observations by Janice Koler-Matznick the examined dogs showed behavior that in general had a lower threshold (e.g. scent rolling) than other domestic dogs and an earlier developmental onset than other domestic dogs or grey wolves (e.g. hackle biting at 2 weeks compared to other domestic dogs/grey wolves at 6 weeks) or a quantitative difference (e.g. reduced expression of intraspecific affiliate behaviors). The dogs observed by her did not show the typical canid play bow; however Imke Voth found this behavior during examinations in the 1980s.

In addition Koler-Matznick observed some behavioral patterns, which she regarded as unique:

• Head toss: This behavior, shown by every observed dog, is a prompt for attention, food or a sign of frustration, expressed to varying degrees depending on arousal level. In complete expression, the head is swept to one side, nose rotated through a 90 degree arc to midline, then rapidly returned to the starting position. The entire sequence takes 1–2 seconds. The mildest expression is a slight flick of the head to the side and back. During this behavior, the characteristic contrasting black and white chin markings are displayed.
• Copulation scream: At the copulatory tie, the female emits a repetitive sequence of loud, high-pitched yelp about 3 minutes. This scream has a strong arousal effect on most domestic dogs within auditory range.
• Copulation contractions: About 3 minutes after the start of the tie, females begin a series of rhythmic abdominal contractions. During each contraction, the skin of the flanks and lumbar area is drawn forward. These contractions are accompanied by groans and occur regularly, several seconds apart (they may pause intermittently), continuing for the length of the tie.
• In addition the Singers have an unusual form of auto-erotic stimulation, a strong tendency to target the genitals for both playful and aggressive bites, a cheek-rub that may be a marking behavior and a tooth-gnashing threat.

During estrus, when potential partners are present, same-sex Singers often fight to the point of severe injury. Furthermore, adults also display a high degree of aggression towards unfamiliar dogs, which would indicate that they are strongly territorial. Their distinctive aggression could not be observed to that extent among Australian dingoes (who live without human contact).

Based on dogs in captivity it was assumed that wild Singing dogs do not form permanent packs. In fact up to date all sightings in the wild were of single dogs or pairs and according to observations by Imke Voth in the 1980s some dogs are most comfortable in pairs and others in small groups.

A male in the Tierpark Berlin.

Imke Voth could not find any impressive behavior among the dogs observed by her, rather the dogs immediately switched over to threatening behavior. She ascribed this quirk to the dogs’ reduction in expression – a relatively limited ability for social life as a secondary adaptation caused by changed ecological conditions. "Inaccuracy" of expression might be the cause for communication-problems and therefore the cause for high social stress that potentially causes exaggerated, insufficiently ritualized aggressive respectively predatory behavior.

New Guinea Singing Dogs are among those dogs where a proven problem in the area of inter-/intraspecific "mix-motivations" in the frame of comparable ontogenesis-studies exists. Among some litters there was very rough play behavior by the mothers towards the pups noticed, which often switched over to agonistic behavior as well as "handling". The mothers did not adequately react to the shouts of pain by the pups but rather interpreted it as further "invitation" for "playing". The researchers stated that this does not have to apply to all Singers.

During observations of Singers by Brian Hare, where food was placed under one of two bowls and one person pointed to the bowl with the food, only a few dogs had a higher success rate than 50 % for going to the right bowl. Therefore it was assumed that the success was pure coincidence and that Singers are not able to read human gestures.

Reproduction

An annual reproduction could be proven for dogs in captivity, starting in August with a gestation period of 63 days on average. In the Tierpark Berlin 80 % of the litters were born in October and November and the gestation period was 58 to 64 days. The litter size was 1 to 6 pups. Informants from New Guinea reported sightings of wild pups in December, which allows for the conclusion, that wild Singers have a similar cycle. Reports of 25 bitches in captivity showed that when they did not conceive during their first annual estrous, about 65% have a second estrous cycles, sometimes even a third, 8–16 weeks later.

Males in captivity usually participate in raising the pups, including the regurgitation of food. However, during the first breeding season following their birth, especially if there is a potential mate present, pups are often aggressively attacked by the same-sex parent.

Diet

Reports from local sources in Papua New Guinea from the 1970s and the Mid 1990s indicate that these dogs are generalists, opportunistic predators and scavengers, and feed on small to middle-sized marsupials, rodents, birds and fruits. In fact remnants of rodents have been found in dog scat in the 1970s. Furthermore wild dogs supposedly consume cuscus, appropriate kills of the New Guinea Harpy Eagles and prey in hunter traps. Robert Bino stated, that they their prey spectrums possible consists of rats, cuscus, wallabies, dwarf cassowaries and other birds.

Distribution

The reported wild range of the New Guinea Singing Dog consists of the mountains and swampy mountain regions of Papua New Guinea at an altitude of 2500 to 4700 meters. The main vegetation zones are (lowest to highest): 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 (bone findings of dogs in the lowlands of New Guinea were estimated with an age of 5500 years) 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 in these areas nowadays, or possibly extinct. Up to 1976 there were scientific reports of Singers in the Star Mountains und in 1989 Dr. Tim Flannery was able to take a picture of a black-and-tan dog in a place called Dokfuma, that lies in the same mountains. In 1996 Robert Bino undertook a field study about these dogs. He was not able to observe any wild Singers and instead used signs like scats, paw prints, urine markings and prey remnants to make conclusions about the behavior of Singers. Based on this lack of sightings it is possible that the local populations have completely mingled with domestic dogs of other descent. There are only reports from local residents that wild dogs have been seen or heard in higher reaches of the mountains. A more recent example is the fleeting sight 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.

Janice Koler-Matznick disagrees with the argument that there have been no verified sightings for a long time and believes that there are still a few remote populations. She argued that the wild living dogs of the highlands are probably Singers and no other dogs, and albeit the village dogs of the island would have the highest chance of survival, they were adapted to a tropical climate and therefore had supposedly only minimal chances of survival in the highlands. Furthermore the local people made a clear distinction between village dogs and Singers in their language and together with their knowledge of the animal world this would make confusions between the two impossible.

The current population under human care is descended from only 8 individuals. These dogs were not captured in the wild by the people who brought them from Papua New Guinea but were acquired from the local people of the highlands. Due to the small number of founding individuals the current population is highly inbred.

A dog in the San Diego Zoo

The first pair of dogs in captivity came from the highlands of Papua New Guinea in 1956. Sir Edward Hallstrom, an employee of the Taronga Zoo, ordered the search for them and gave them to the zoo as a donation. However, the reports about these two specimens contain contradictions concerning their place of origin of the dogs. The descendents of this pair (marked as Papua-line) were shipped to zoos around the world, including the Zoological Park of Sand Diego, which received a pair in 1959. Later on, this zoo sent pups to many other zoos in the United States and Europe. Until 1987 all Singers in the United States were descendents of the original pair from Taronga Zoo.

Between 1965 and 1980 a number of 89 dogs from the "Papua-line", and from 1983 to 1999 41 dogs of the "Irian Jaya-Line" were bred. To increase the genetic diversity of the captive population in the United States, the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas had a female named Olga flown in from the Kiel Domestic Animal Institute in Germany in 1987. Olga’s ancestors were 5 dogs which were brought to Germany by W. Nelke in 1976, as part of an expedition for the Museum for Ethnography to the Eipomek River Valley in the western part of Papua New Guinea, known as Irian Jaya. These dogs came from a village population of the Eipo-tribe and were shipped to the Kiel Domestic Animal Institute in Germany. Today all New Guinea Singing dogs of the United States are maternally descended from Olga. Olga produced several litters together with a male named Dinkum from the San Diego/Taronga-line. Nowadays some pedigrees in the United States trace back only to this pair, even in the fourth and fifth generation, since it was the only producing pair for many years.

In 1994 a male named Darkie was brought from Canada to South Carolina by Dr. I. Lehr Brisbin. This male was born in 1981 in the Baiyer River Sanctuary in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. His sire was a male from the Taronga-line and his mother was described as "wild caught", which would mean that she was the last wild specimen added to the captive population. There is no further information about this female, because the sanctuary was closed in later times and all information got lost. The other descendents of the pair did not produce further offspring because they died after the transport from Taronga to Papua New Guinea in 1989. Darkie produced later three litters with a daughter of Olga and Dinkum.

Until 1980 all Singers in captivity were exclusively kept in zoos. Since than many zoos stopped keeping Singers and in the United States many were given to animal traders and keepers of exotic animals. Many of these people did not keep accurate documentation about these transactions as well as the pedigrees of their dogs and therefore these dogs are regarded as "undocumented". These dogs were further bred and the entire population in the United States is probably bigger than the documented one, which was reported of containing 100 individuals in the year 2003.

Around 2003 the entire registered stock of breeding singers supposedly consisted of 50 specimens. Many zoos no longer exhibited Singers since they are feral dogs and to make room for other animals, which were estimated to be of bigger appeal for visitors and the few remaining individuals were supposedly all spayed and neutered. The population in private facilities is regarded as increasing.

Relationship with Humans

New Guinea Singing Dogs are said to be masters of escaping with a strong hunting drive and therefore need experienced keepers.

A dog in Chicago.

According to reports from the late 1950s and mid 1970s wild Singers are shy and avoid contact with humans, unless they have been raised by humans from young age on. It was reported in the mid 1970s that the Kalam in the highlands of Papua catch young Singers and raise them as hunting aids but don’t breed with them. Some of these dogs probably stayed with the humans even after sexual maturity and reproduced. The Eipo tribe kept and bred these dogs as social partners and playmates for their children. Although the majority of the Highland tribes never eat their village dogs, it is known that they catch, kill and eat wild dogs. Some local myths mention these dogs as bringers of fire and speech or as the spirits of the deceased. How long they already interact with the humans on Papua New Guinea is unknown. Dog-findings in archaeological sites of New Guinea are rare, mostly consists of teeth (as part of ornaments), trophy-skulls and one grave. The earliest finding (a teeth) stems from the lowlands and was estimated to be about 5500 years old. The few findings from the highlands might be of similar age, on stratigraphical basis, but have not been dated yet (state in 2001). It might be possible that these dogs had already lived there in earlier times and that there absence from hunting sites only means that they were not eaten.

A ginger, next to a dark individual.

About 3000 years ago, the natives of Papua New Guinea acquired other domestic dogs and crossed them with their own to increase the hunting abilities of the descendents. Since the beginning of the 20th century the inhabitants of the highlands started to keep chickens and the Singers could not be taught not to attack the poultry. Furthermore they kept other domestic dogs or other crosses with native dogs more and more often, since many saw them as status symbols and many of them were bigger and easier to train. In the past some tribes of New Guinea generally consumed dog meat as part of ritual actions; however, others had a strict taboo concerning the consumption of wild dog meat. It is assumed that the relationship between the modern day inhabitants and their dogs will give information about how they treated the Singers. The highlanders of the recent past had a casually symbiotic relationship to their pariah dogs. The dogs might have "owners" due to their names but otherwise move completely free through the villages and follow their owners on their journeys when allowed. The dogs are not forced to obey and not otherwise disciplined, since not much is expected of them, except when regarding stealing and chewing on important objects. There is no medical care for them and they mostly live of garbage. The most intelligent dogs are those that manage to steal the most food and therefore are able to have the most descendents. One exception are the highly valued hunting dogs. Good hunting dogs get regular meals and normally get their share from every animal they can find for the hunters. These hunting dogs are not trained to hunt on command. They simply travel with the hunters and search for prey on their own. In case of bigger prey, like pigs, they are able to hold it at bay until the hunters arrive. Exceptional hunting dogs sometimes receive special burials and honoring. When possible the people take advantage of the prey that bitches caught for their puppies by confiscating it. Since bitches normally carry this sort of food in their stomachs and only the least agile are in danger of getting caught, this form of food acquisition is not significant for humans.

Origin and taxonomic status

For these dogs an origin in Indonesia or South-East Asia is very likely; however, the exact location and date is unknown. Genetic analyses also indicate towards an origin in East Asia . These dogs were most likely brought to Papua New Guinea by humans; the dogs could not have covered the distance between the islands by swimming, since even at lowest sea level the distance would have been too big. Findings indicate that there were dogs about 5500 years ago, which at least looked similar to the Singers. Janice Koler-Matznick was of the opinion that there might have been dogs in earlier times and that they just weren’t discovered yet.

Dr. Ellis Troughton examined the first pair in the Zoo of Sydney and classified them as a separate species; however, Dr. Tim Flannery regarded the New Guinea Singing Dog as a relative of the domestic dogs from the surrounding islands. Further examinations based on valid morphological and molecular comparisons are necessary to clarify the taxonomic status of these dogs. Indeed there is increasing evidence that former and current populations are mongrel dogs. For instance: the morphology of all hitherto examined Singer-skulls, including holotype and paratype match those of hybrid-dingoes. Since these dogs have an mtDNA-type that also occurs among Australian Dingoes they are currently provisionally assigned to them. Contrary to one report by Janice Koler-Matznick analyses of DNA-Sequences rule out ancestry with dholes and African wild dogs and clearly assign it to the domestic dog. Therefore Sillero-Zubiri et al. saw no reason to change the current taxonomic status.

The New Guinea Singing Dogs is classified as a dog breed of Papua New Guinea in the Domestic Animal Information System of the FAO and in 1996 by the United Kennel Club (in the Sighthounds & Pariah Group).

A black-and-tan Singer

A team under Koler-Matznick held the view that the assumption that the New Guinea Singing dog is a feral domestic dog, was based on their dog-like appearance and the assumption that it was transported to New Guinea by humans and therefore had to be domesticated at that point. This team was of the opinion that this didn’t have to be the case, since e.g. even foxes in California might have been transported to islands by humans. These people argue that the New Guinea Singing Dog was brought to New Guinea as a tamed wild animal to e.g. serve as a hunting aid. Furthermore there is supposedly no ethnographical proof for domestication and they supposedly do not show the characteristic morphological features of domestication. This team was further of the opinion that these dogs could not be assigned to the grey wolf, since they were obviously not wolves and were isolated from wolves for thousands of years. It would be further questionable to classify them as feral dogs, since there was no direct proof for this assumption. Also the behavior of dogs that were socialized to humans would be no proof, since other tamed mammals supposedly act similar around familiar humans. Although dingoes, Singers and other domestic dogs share many similarities, there were supposedly morphological, molecular, genetic and behavioral characteristics that would separate the Singers from the other two. A given example was that the Singer had two blood-enzymes, which supposedly indicates that it might have physiologically separated itself from the other two dogs (which were classified as two separate species). Furthermore the enzymes of domestic dogs, dingoes and grey wolves might be amorph, while those of the Singers might by plesiomorph, since the enzymes of the Singer matched those of coyotes and red foxes. Singer might have developed these enzymes on New Guinea or inherited them from a different ancestor than that of modern domestic dogs. The possibility of interbreeding between Singers and other domestic dogs was also not regarded as a reason that the two belong to the same species, since all members of the genus Canis were supposedly capable of producing fertile hybrids and several had mixed in the wild. Genetically and ecologically the New Guinea Singing Dog would not be replaceable with any other canid-population and the available data would at least indicate that the New Guinea Singing Dog would demonstrate a unique evolutionary entity, possible a sister-taxon of the Australian Dingo. Since the Singer had diagnostic characteristics that differentiate it from other members of the genus Canis, the name Canis hallstromi should be used to identify it as a distinguishable taxonomic entity inside the genus Canis. Although these assumptions were based on captive Singers, this was regard as irrelevant, since it was assumed that the described, regarded as unique, characteristics probably could not have developed during captivity. It was further suspected that these dogs would be an example on how dogs looked in the time before domestication and that their keeping by the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea would not really match the common concept of domestication. In addition the ecological balance between the Singers and their prey was regarded as evidence that these dogs were not domesticated when they arrived on the island. As a further argument against the status of the Singer as a feral domestic dog she gives that there are supposedly no reports of demographically self-sustaining feral dog populations that are not somehow dependent on human (except for the extinct Galapagos dog). Even in the absence of other big predators, domestic dogs would supposedly never become independent predators.

Kristofer M. Helgen disagreed with Matznick's arguments. He said that these dogs are biologically interesting and deserve further ecological study, but neither molecular nor morphological evidence support the claim for taxonomic status as a separate species, particularly in the light of the morphological plasticity of the domesticated dog.

Genetic Status

During genetic analyses on the origin of the Australian dingo the scientists found the mtDNA-type A29 among Australian dingoes, as well as domestic dogs from the islands of South-East Asia, North America, East Asia and New Guinea Singings Dogs. This mtDNA-type fell in a phylogenetic tree of wolf- and dog-types right in the main clade of domestic dog mtDNA-types (70 % of the mtDNA-types). Furthermore the Singers had a unique mtDNA-type that differed from A29 by two point mutations: This showed the possibility of a shared origin with Australian dingoes, as well as a genetic exchange and the affiliation with the domestic dog. Whether the dingoes of Australia are descended from the Singers or the other way around, respectively whether both populations had the same origin could not be clarified. Since Papua New Guinea and Australia were connected via a land-bridge until 6000 years ago, traveling from one to the other would for all intents and purposes have been possible. According to Koler-Matznick further DNA-analyses might show, that Thai dingoes are also closely related to New Guinea Singing dogs. She also assumed that Singers and Australian dingoes might demonstrate a genetic line that separated itself from other dogs about 4600 to 10800 years ago. Furthermore, she was of the opinion that as long as nothing contrary was proven, you had to assume that a genetic exchange between Singers and village dogs in Papua New Guinea based on behavioral isolation of both populations is either rare or non-existent.

Legal Status

The New Guinea Singing Dog was mostly not regarded as being worthy of study, since they are feral domestic dogs. Archaeozoologists that promote protection of these dogs argue that they are a living relict of the earliest dogs and at least a part of the heritage of the people of Papua New Guinea. The Singer is regarded as being worthy of protection, since the captive population is highly inbred and the wild population is probably excluded from several parts of its original distribution area. The Department of Environment and Conservation in New Guinea only announced protection measures.

According to Janice Koler-Matznick there is a certain hesitation on classifying the Singers of being worthy of protection until more field data is available. In addition there is supposedly small interest in enduring the necessary difficulties of field studies in the highlands of New Guinea until the Singer is regarded as a unique and endangered taxon. The conservation approach is based on protecting the evolutionary potential of the New Guinea Singing Dogs, unless there is conclusive contrary evidence that the Singers are not a distinctive population. She further argues that the importance of the Singer lies in its age and the purity as an evolutionary unit, together with several unique genetic, behavioral, ecological, reproductive and morphological characteristics.

See also

• Basenji
• Carolina Dog
• Canaan dog
• Telomian

Further Reading (Published)

• "The New Guinea Singing Dog: Its Status and Scientific Importance". Australian Mammalogy 29: 47–56. {{cite news}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
• "An Ethogram of the New Guinea Singing Dog, Canis hallstromi". New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation Society: Central Point, Oregon, USA. {{cite news}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
• "An Updated Description of the New Guinea Singing Dog (Canis hallstromi Troughton, 1957)". Journal of Zoology (London) 261: 109–118. {{cite news}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
• "The New Guinea Singing Dog:a Living Primitive Dog. Pp 239-247". Proceedings International Council for Archaeozoology Annual Meeting, Victoria, Canada, 1999 BAR International Series 889 ed. by S. J. Crockfood. Archaeopress: Oxford. {{cite news}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
• "Notes on Behavior of New Guinea Singing Dogs (Canis lupus dingo). 1996". Science in New Guinea, 22 (1), pp 43-47. Field Study of NGSD. {{cite news}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)

• "A Collection of Dog Skulls from Papua. Expedition to Mt. Bosavi in 1968". Schultz-Westram. In German with excepts translated into English. {{cite news}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)

External links

• New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation Society
• New Guinea Singing Dog International
• NGSD Vocalization Files
• A Singer singing (download of audio-file)