Scientists have confirmed the existence of an ancient dog species in one of the world's most remote places - the mountains of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia's Papua provinces. The international team led by scientists from Indonesia's University of Papua captured evidence of the New Guinea highland wild dog during a 2016 expedition to an austere, high-altitude region near the Grasberg mine, one of the world's largest copper mines.

Start the conversation, or Read more at ABC News. </s> Dingo relative rediscovered in remote highlands of New Guinea

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Scientists have confirmed the existence of an ancient dog species in one of the world's most remote places — the mountains of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia's Papua provinces.

Key points: The discovery is the first sighting of the dogs in more than 40 years

They are among the oldest and most primitive canines in the world

Analysis of the species could help explain dog and human co-evolution

The international team led by scientists from Indonesia's University of Papua captured evidence of the New Guinea highland wild dog during a 2016 expedition to an austere, high-altitude region near the Grasberg mine, one of the world's largest copper mines.

The discovery is the first confirmed sighting of the species in more than 40 years.

The dogs are believed likely to be the same species as the New Guinea singing dog, a wild dog that has been bred in captivity since several pairs were taken from the remote New Guinea highlands on both sides of the border in the 1950s and 1970s.

There are about 200 New Guinea singing dogs in zoos around the world, but little is known about the ancient breed famous for their unique vocalisations.

However, scientists are certain it shares ancestry with the Australian dingo.

American zoologist James McIntyre, who had been searching for the elusive dog for years, joined the team as an adviser on a leg of the research that took them to the slopes of Papua Province's highest mountain, Puncak Jaya.

Mr McIntyre led his own expedition in the 1990s to the highlands of north-western Papua New Guinea — however while his team heard chorus howling at dawn and dusk, they made no sightings.

He remained certain the elusive canid species still roamed the highlands' cloud forest terrain, several thousand metres above sea level.

"I had the opportunity to speak to many remote villagers there, and it seems like every different village has some kind of story pertaining to the highland wild dog," he said.

"The dog has been woven into the fabric of their culture and their tradition."

While there have been several sighting reports since his initial expedition, it wasn't until last year that Mr McIntyre found what he considered to be credible scientific evidence pointing not only to the existence of healthy populations, but also of the dog's curious nature.

"We were travelling up this beautiful valley and it consists of three terraced lakes that eventually wind up at two active glaciers.

"I was broadcasting audio howls of North American coyotes — a male and female coyote, a female coyote in distress, and coyote puppies in distress," he said.

Mr McIntyre said while the sounds were not species specific, any kind of different noise or howl in another animal's territory was likely to evoke curiosity.

He even took off his boots at one stage of the journey and left behind bare footprints.

On his return, Mr McIntyre found fresh dog pawprints next to his own footprint.

"So in fact, I didn't find those dogs, they found me," he said.

The researchers set photo traps, lacing the ground with scents they hoped would lure the dogs, and waited.

"It wasn't until the very last day, after the weather had cleared for a while, that I got any photos whatsoever," Mr McIntyre said.

"I don't mind saying out loud that I squealed when I finally saw documentary proof of these animals."

A window into the history of Australia's dingoes

The highland wild dog is seen as a "pristine" canid — an example of how dogs were at the time they began being domesticated.

Mr McIntyre said the discovery of the ancient dog in such a remote location was enormously important to the understanding of dog and human co-evolution.

"So this can tell us a lot about the history and the pre-history of Papua New Guinea and just the migrations of the people and the dogs and how they got to where they are today," he said.

Mr McIntyre said a full investigation of the dogs' DNA would prove the highland wild dog, the New Guinea singing dog and the dingo are "the only animals on the planet that are even remotely related to each other".

"Years ago, Australia and New Guinea were attached by a land bridge when the oceans were much shallower than they are now, and it was probably one species of dog that lived in both countries.

"When the water rose and the land bridge was eliminated, the dogs that were isolated on the island of Australia adapted and evolved [into] dingoes," he said.

"And the dogs that were isolated on the island of New Guinea seemed to retreat to the highlands and evolved and adapted to what they are today."

Tensions in Papua province a barrier to research

Scientists associated with the newly-formed non-profit New Guinea Highlands Wild Dogs Foundation, of which Mr McIntyre is president, plan to return to the same area in July this year to trap the dogs and give them a thorough examination.

Although villagers across the New Guinea Highlands reported signs of the dog, the proximity of the Grasberg mine to the 2016 discovery was considered a boon for researchers.

Mr McIntyre said scientists faced extensive barriers getting to the Indonesian side of New Guinea island, which is subject to a simmering insurgency by Indigenous West Papuans seeking independence.

"I had been trying to get into Papua province for three-and-a-half years and there are many political hoops that we have to go through in order to get in there, and it seems as though at times they are reluctant to bring foreign researchers in there," he said.

The mountainous island of New Guinea is one of the most richly biodiverse places on earth.

He said the mine operators had helped facilitate the recent expedition, and had indicated they would do so again.

Mr McIntyre said it was crucial for the highland wild dog team also to include local scientists to be involved in the preservation of their national heritage.

"We certainly couldn't do it —and we wouldn't do it either — without the association of a Papuan University," he said.

"I made sure, and I will make sure in the future, that any of the students and any of the professors that we have be Papuan."

Topics: animal-science, science-and-technology, dna, human-interest, animals, papua-new-guinea, papua, australia

First posted </s> Eyewitness accounts of large, dog-like animals in state’s far north spur scientific hunt for thylacines, thought to have died out in 1936

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

“Plausible” possible sightings of a Tasmanian tiger in northern Queensland have prompted scientists to undertake a search for the species thought to have died out more than 80 years ago.

The last thylacine is thought to have died in Hobart zoo in 1936, and it is widely believed to have become extinct on mainland Australia at least 2,000 years ago.

But sightings of large, dog-like animals that are neither dingoes nor foxes have persisted over the decades, despite widespread scepticism.

Tasmanian tiger sightings: 'I represent 3,000 people who have been told they’re nuts' Read more

Recent eyewitness accounts of potential thylacines in far north Queensland have spurred scientists from James Cook University to launch a search for the animal long considered extinct.

Professor Bill Laurance said he had spoken at length to two people about animals they had seen in Cape York peninsula that could potentially be thylacines, and that they had given plausible and detailed descriptions.



One was a long-time employee of the Queensland National Parks Service and the other was a frequent camper in the north of the state.

Laurance said all the potential sightings to date had been at night. “In one case four animals were observed at close range – about 20 feet away – with a spotlight.”

Descriptions of their eyes, size, shape and behaviour were inconsistent with known attributes of other large species in north Queensland such as dingoes, wild dogs or feral pigs.

The sightings were at two separate locations on Cape York peninsula, but the specifics were being kept confidential, said Laurance. “Everything is being handled with strict confidence.”



He said people who claimed to have seen a thylacine were “very nervous about relating their tales for fear of being branded kooks or fringe types”.

Richard Dawkins had tweeted hopefully of news of the study.

“Can it be true? Has Thylacinus been seen alive? And in mainland Australia not Tasmania? I so want it to be true.”

Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) Can it be true? https://t.co/4Qjv8jdzXm Has Thylacinus been seen alive? And in mainland Australia not Tasmania? I so want it to be true.

Sandra Abell, a researcher with James Cook University’s Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science who was leading the field survey, said they had been contacted with more possible sightings since their intentions were publicised.

She was in the process of deciding on sites for the more than 50 “camera traps” to be set up on Cape York peninsula, with the survey due to get under way when the dry season begins in April or May.



Abell said even if a thylacine was not detected, the survey would inform the centre’s understanding of the status of rare and endangered mammal species on the peninsula.

Many mammals, including the northern bettong, were at risk from introduced predators, she said.

“It is a low possibility that we’ll find thylacines, but we’ll certainly get lots of data on the predators in the area and that will help our studies in general.”

It was “not impossible” there were thylacines to be found, she said. “It’s not a mythical creature. A lot of the descriptions people give, it’s not a glimpse in the car headlights. People who say they’ve actually seen them can describe them in great detail, so it’s hard to say they’ve seen anything else.

“I’m not ruling it out at all, but to actually get them on camera will be incredibly lucky.”

Thylacine “truthers” active on Facebook were emboldened by the recent rediscovery of the night parrot in Western Australia, presumed extinct until 2013, and photographed this month.

“Maybe old stripey next?” commented one member of the Thylacine Awareness Group. </s> A renewed search for the Tasmanian tiger will officially begin in April on a remote peninsula in Far North Queensland, Australia. The effort, spearheaded by two researchers from James Cook University, comes on the heels of credible eyewitness observations of animals in the region matching the long-extinct species' description.

“We have cross-checked the descriptions we received of eyeshine colour, body size and shape, animal behavior, and other attributes, and these are inconsistent with known attributes of other large-bodied species in north Queensland such as dingoes, wild dogs or feral pigs,” Professor Bill Laurance said in a university news release.

A family of Tasmanian tigers as photographed at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart in 1910. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, is the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It was once widespread throughout the wetlands, forests, and grasslands of Australia, Tasmania and Papua New Guinea. Pressures from competing species like the invasive dingo, as well as a devastating cull to protect sheep by European settlers in the 19th century led to the population's collapse and subsequent extinction in 1936.

Over the ensuing decades, thousands of unsubstantiated reports have been filed from people claiming to have spotted a Tasmanian tiger. Legends of pockets of thylacine surviving in remote regions of Tasmania and Australia were so pervasive that rewards ranging from $100,000 to as much as $1.75 million were offered for the capture of a live animal.

So what is it about these two eyewitness reports from the Cape York Peninsula that have renewed scientific interest in the species? According to Laurance, who has spoken at length to both individuals, it's both their credibility and what they saw that's most intriguing.

“One of those observers was a long-time employee of the Queensland National Parks Service, and the other was a frequent camper and outdoorsman in north Queensland," he said. "All observations of putative thylacines to date have been at night, and in one case four animals were observed at close range — about 20 feet away — with a spotlight."

You can see rare footage, captured in 1933, of a Tasmanian tiger in captivity below.

The researchers, who plan to deploy 50 high-tech camera traps throughout the Cape, are keeping the locations of the sightings and upcoming survey a closely guarded secret. Regardless of whether or not any Tasmanian tigers are discovered, the search is expected to collect valuable information on local species.

"It is a low possibility that we’ll find thylacines," co-investigator Dr. Sandra Abell told 9News , "but we’ll certainly get lots of data on the predators in the area and that will help our studies in general." </s> SYDNEY — Gunmen have massacred as many as 18 people including women and children in a remote village in Papua New Guinea, apparently the latest victims of a tribal feud and Prime Minister James Marape vowed on Wednesday to hunt down the killers.

Violence has long ravaged the poor but resource-rich Pacific Ocean nation, but the scale of the latest bloodletting has shocked the country.

“It’s a very sad story,” Philip Undialu, the governor of Hela Province in the rugged central highlands where the attack took place on Monday, told Reuters by phone.

Pictures posted on Facebook showed the dead, including several children, wrapped in cloth and laid on palm leaves by the side of a road.

Undialu said the particular trigger for the killings in Karida village, some 630 km northwest of the capital, Port Moresby, was not known but the violence was the latest flare-up of a conflict running for years.

Those targeted had offered shelter to victims of a bout of violence several weeks ago, he said.

“It was retaliation of a previous attack … it was a very sudden attack,” he said, adding that in all, 24 people had been killed in the latest phase of violence.

“Both attacks were made in an innocent community where people were not expecting it and all of us are in a state of shock.”

Prime Minister James Marape said he was “coming for” the killers.

“In memory of the innocent who continue to die at the hands of gun-toting criminals, your time is up,” Marape said in a post on his official Facebook page.

“Before I had someone else to report to, now I have no one else to report to but the innocent you kill,” he said. “I am not afraid to use strongest measures in law on you … I am coming for you.”
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Marape, who became leader in May, cited a lack of police on the ground as a major problem in a region that has for years grappled with violence, sometimes driven by disputes over the distribution of resource wealth.

ExxonMobil Corp operates a natural gas processing plant in the province and halted construction on a pipeline last year because of unrest.

Last year, aid workers bringing relief supplies to the area’s district town of Tari after a big earthquake were ordered out and the army was sent in to quell tribal disputes. </s> A major scientific search is underway in Queensland, Australia for the Tasmanian tiger,A series of possible 'plausible' sightings have triggered hope a rare species has returned from the brink.Camera traps are being deployed across Cape York Peninsula by James Cook University researchers to survey sites where the creature, also known as the Tasmanian wolf, was reportedly spotted.Native to continental Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea, the last of the thylacine species is thought to have died in a zoo in Hobart, Tasmania in 1936.Revived interest in the long-lost creature was sparked after a former tourism operator captured a sighting and contacted local experts.Professor Bill Laurance of James Cook University told ABC News "He was quite detailed in terms of his descriptions of eye shines and aspects of the body pattern and movements."A similar description at a separate, remote location in Far North Queensland was offered by a former National Parks Service ranger, reported Australian Geographic Over fifty hi-tech cameras baited with lures will now be set secretly across two undisclosed sites in the hope of finding the long-lost thylacine."We're not worried too much about legitimate scientists [doing that], but we're a little worried about what you might call the 'yobbo effect' — where somebody hears about it and then wants to go and shoot one of these things," Professor Laurance told ABC of their decision to stay tight lipped on specific locations.Last year the Thylacine Awareness Group of Australia released footage from 2008 of an apparent Tasmanian tiger roaming the wilds of southern Victoria.Laurance admits the chances of finding the Tasmanian tiger are slim but he hopes the expedition will provide valuable insights into regional biodiversity, where mammal populations are declining at an alarming rate.However there is a success-rate in rediscovering a lost species in the region. It was reported just last month that endangered northern bettongs were found in in Far North Queensland where it was previously believed they had died out. </s> The last of these dog-like animals, also known as Tasmanian tigers, was thought to have died in 1936. But might they still be lurking elusively in the wild?

Like sightings of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster, eyewitness accounts of the thought-to-be extinct thylacine are often met with no small dose of skepticism. The largest carnivorous marsupial of the modern era, the beautifully striped thylacine once roamed mainland Australia, where it is believed to have become extinct some 2,000 years ago. In the wilds of Tasmania, however, it lived on, bearing the common name of Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf. But as is the fate of all too many animals, the last lone thylacine in the wild was believed to be killed in 1930; the last one in captivity died at the Hobart zoo in 1936.

While there was hope that perhaps a few stalwart members of the species has surreptitiously survived, the thylacine was officially declared extinct in the 1980s.

But that hasn’t stopped people from reporting sightings of the long-extinct creature. And now, detailed possible sightings of a Tasmanian tiger in north Queensland, Australia, have prompted scientists to undertake a search for the species, reports The Guardian.

Professor Bill Laurance from James Cook University says he has “plausible and detailed descriptions” from two people about mystery animals they had seen in Cape York peninsula; the animals could possibly be thylacines. One of the witnesses is a long-time employee of the Queensland National Parks Service; the other a frequent camper.

The descriptions of the sightings – some as close as 20 feet away – described physical features that are distinct from other large species in the area, animals like dingoes, wild dogs or feral pigs.

Sandra Abell, a researcher with James Cook University’s Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science who was leading the field survey, said they had been contacted with more possible sightings since their intentions were publicized, notes the Guardian.

Her team will install 50-plus camera traps for a survey that will begin this spring. Is she confident they will snare a snap of a Tasmanian tiger? Not exactly, but she says it’s not impossible.

“It’s not a mythical creature. A lot of the descriptions people give, it’s not a glimpse in the car headlights. People who say they’ve actually seen them can describe them in great detail, so it’s hard to say they’ve seen anything else.

“I’m not ruling it out at all,” she says, “but to actually get them on camera will be incredibly lucky.”

Whether or not hard evidence of the thylacine’s survival is found, the scientific search itself gives credence to the potential that they’re out there. And while confirmation that they defied extinction would be incredible news in times when animals are facing such disheartening declines, maybe (fingers crossed) the Tasmanian tiger’s elusiveness has been the secret to its success all along. </s> May 2 (Reuters) - A mineral-rich region of Papua New Guinea has lifted a 40-year-old ban on new mining and exploration, opening the way for iron ore and copper operations.

The autonomous Bougainville region has a troubled history over resource development, with a bloody secessionist conflict erupting in the late 1980s stoked by dissatisfaction in how benefits from the Panguna copper mine were distributed.

Global mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd said last year that it would relinquish ownership of Panguna, closed for around 25 years.

The lifting of the ban allows for applications to mine in the iron ore rich areas of Tore, Isina and Jaba, but does not include Panguna, one of the largest copper mines in the world, Bougainville president John Momis said in a statement on Sunday.

He added that scrapping the ban would ensure the area's economic development, with the government seeking applications from genuine investors.

"I look forward to the development of long term economic partnerships to allow Bougainville to fulfil the economic potential she rightly deserves," Momis said.

The moratorium on exploration and mining had been in place since 1971 - with the exception of Panguna - due to local concerns over revenue-sharing and the impact on the environment. (Reporting by Benjamin Weir in Sydney; Editing by Joseph Radford) </s> Ancient rhino bones that shows signs of butchering suggest early humans colonised the Philippines as early as 709,000 years ago.

The near-complete rhinoceros skeleton was found alongside nearly 60 ancient stone tools by scientists excavating a site on the island of Luzon.

The discovery could push back our estimates for when hominins first arrived in the Philippines by almost 650,000 years.

The discovery has left scientists baffled as tho who these ancient humans were and how they crossed the deep seas to reach Southeast Asia.

Experts suggest the ancient hominids likely arrived on the islands accidentally after sailing from Africa aboard crude watercraft, but they have no proof of this.

The scientists, from France's National Museum of Natural History in Paris, found more than 400 ancient animal bones in Luzon's Cagayan Valley.

The majority of these bones made up a nearly three-quarters complete rhinoceros skeleton that showed signs of butchering.

Marks on the remains were linked to a set of 57 knapped stone tools found at a nearby site.

Thirteen of the rhino's bones have cut marks and two show evidence they were smacked against rocks to release their nutritious marrow.

Researchers also uncovered the remains of brown deer, monitor lizards, freshwater turtles and stegodons - an extinct mammal similar to elephants and mammoths.

The authors date the remains to around 709,000 years ago, providing the earliest direct evidence yet of early human activity in the Philippines.

Stone tools and the remains of mysterious large animals were discovered in separate research at Cagayan Valley in the 1950s.

The finds hinted that the Philippine island may have been colonised by early humans any time between 781,000 and 126,000 years ago.

But for the past 60 years scientists have struggled to find reliably dated evidence of this early settlement.

Until now, the oldest definitive evidence of hominins in the Philippines came from a single foot bone, found in the Sierra Madre mountains, dated to 67,000 years ago.

The exact species of the stone tools’ owners remains a mystery.

The hominins who made them could have been early humans or a group of human-like ancestors such as Neanderthals or Denisovans.

But according to the researchers, the most likely culprits were early humans, meaning groups had reached the Philippines by the early Middle Pleistocene - long before modern humans.

This adds another sea-crossing to the question of whether early hominin toolmakers were unexpectedly capable of building simple watercraft.

Study lead author Dr Thomas Ingicco suggested ancient humans and their Hominin cousins were capable of travelling long distances accidentially on crude boats.

He compared early man's travel to the Philippines to journeys known to have been taken between continents by ancient species of animal on driftwood.

Dr Ingicco told MailOnline: 'Our findings pushes back the colonisation of the Philippine Islands by more than 600,000 years.

'It provides further evidence that overseas dispersal, either accidental or deliberate (but most likely accidental) happened several times not only for faunas but also for Hominins.'

The Philippine islands were populated by modern humans when the Austronesians crossed over from farming villages in southern China or Taiwan.

The Austronesians are a range of aborigine and ethnic groups who speak the Austronesian family of languages.

These include the Taiwanese aborigines and indigenous populations in Malaysia, East Timor, Philippines, Indonesia, Burnei, Polynesia, New Zealand and Hawaii.

They are thought to have begun spreading through the islands of Southeast Asia up to 10,000 years ago, using traditional canoe vessels.

There are several theories for their migration through the islands but Austronesian people are thought to have reached Polynesia by around 1,000BC.
Zoologists led by the University of Papua announce the first sighting of a pack of New Guinea highland wild dogs in the wild of New Guinea, near the Grasberg mine, in over four decades.