Cool, right?
What? You don't know what a Singer is? Singers are probably the rarest of the wild canids (canids include dogs, wolves, dingoes and their relatives). The population size in the wild is unknown, partly due to the difficult terrain, partly due to their clever avoidance of humans and partly due to the small number of Singers that still exist.
There are around 200 pure bred Singers in captivity.
I've met about 5% of the captive population.
THIS is a captive Singer. [The one on the right.]
Very, very little is known about Singers in the wild - what they eat, what type of society they form (if any), much of their behavior. What is known is their distinctive vocalizations. They aren't called Singers for nothin'.
Based on observations in captivity we can draw some conclusions about wild Singers. They probably live alone or in pairs (in captivity females generally do not tolerate other females and males do not tolerate other males). Foldo, pictured above, used to be a pet dog but had a habit of escaping his yard and fighting other, often much bigger dogs. And winning. Animal Control finally told his people that he needed to go somewhere else.
[PSA - exotic animals generally do not make good pets, think very carefully before you consider an exotic. Better yet, don't. Volunteer at a rescue that specializes in these frequently abandoned former pets instead.]
They have incredible skills as escape artists. Not a surprise since they live in very steep, mountainous habitat. They can climb chain link. Think a wood fence would be better? Think again. They can climb out at corners. Or dig out. They do dig a LOT in captivity so their enclosures need to have sturdy dig barriers. In fact females in captivity sometimes dig dens to bear and raise their pups.
Despite being aggressive to other dogs, Singers do very well with people. Now, they have to have been raised in captivity and they need to get to know you. OK. Maybe not very well with people. They do tend to be shy. But once they get to know you they trust you as much as a good domestic dog will trust a person. Better than some domestic dogs. I could help with nail trimming on the Singers but I have to take my own dogs to the groomers to get their nails clipped.
So where did I get to work with such a huge percentage of an endangered species? A carnivore sanctuary called The Conservators' Center. This facility mostly takes in exotic former pets like Lions and Tigers but also has a breeding program for certain rare and endangered species.
Like the Singers.
Foldo, above, and his mate Clancy produced several litters that are now spread around the world (literally! Their daughter, Palantina, is in Germany on a breeding loan).
Now that a second wild Singer has been photographed researchers are planning an expedition to collect hair and stool samples to try and get a grasp of the wild population size. And if they are really lucky they'd like to capture a wild Singer to diversify the genetics of the captive population. With increasing human population the range of the wild Singer is undoubtedly shrinking and the captive population may hold the key to preserving this rare and wild species.
For a video (including singing!) check out this Animal Planet Video (only 4 minutes).
Because these dogs are so poorly known to science some of the facts presented in the Animal Planet video may not be correct.
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