New Guinea Singing Dogs are a breed of dog which comes from New Guinea, an island off the coast of Australia. A long time ago, Australian natives crossed the sea and took their dogs with them to the island. When the natives left the island, they left some of their dogs behind (or some of their dogs escaped). Since there are no other kinds of dogs on the island, the dogs who live there now look a lot like the dogs the natives originally domesticated. Some scientists think that New Guinea Singing Dogs look and act a lot like the very first domesticated dogs. If this is so, studying New Guinea Singing Dogs could tell us a lot about how humans and dogs first began to work together.
New Guinea Singing Dogs don't really sing. They do make a lot of unusual noises, however, including a "yodeling" howl which sounds a little like singing. They make a lot of "normal" dog noises too, including barking, growling and whining. They only "sing" on special occasions. We don't know what those special occasions are, and we at Wolf Park have never heard our New Guinea Singing Dogs sing.
Since the dogs live on a remote island, not a lot is known about what they do in the wild, or what they eat. Our best guess is that they eat small birds and rodents, and probably behave a lot like wolves, foxes, coyotes and dogs. They live in small packs.
Our New Guinea Singing Dogs, Kodi and Katia, are on loan from the Columbian Park Zoo in Lafayette, Indiana, while the Zoo renovates its enclosures.