Brett Ritchie believes this canid is a rare alpine dingo. Photo: Brett Ritchie.
It was a quiet morning when Brett Ritchie saw something moving on his property, out in the distance.
“One morning I got up early, at probably about a quarter past six, and was looking out our front window,” he told Region.
“When I first saw it, I thought it was just a stray dog. He was wrestling and carrying on with our German shepherd.
“When I got a closer look at its face, I realised it wasn’t a stray dog at all – I thought it could have been a dingo.”
The newcomer would show up regularly over the coming weeks and the two dogs quickly became close friends.
“Every single day it comes round and they spend probably an hour a day playing together,” he said.
“It’s been going on for about two months now. I think they’ve done all the exploring that they can do on our property, and now he’s just hanging around.”
The odd couple are two of the residents of the Forbes Creek property, located about 20 kilometres south of Bungendore.
Mr Ritchie and his wife, Bianca, also call it home.
“We’re both semi-retired and both love animals,” Mr Ritchie said.
“We’ve basically converted our 250-acre property into a rescue ranch and we’re now rescuing not just Australian wildlife, but cats, dogs, cows, horses – whatever needs rescuing – with Wildcare.”
Mr Ritchie said their guest mostly kept to himself, except for being with his German shepherd friend, and hadn’t been interested in the food put out for the (pet) dogs.
“It wants nothing to do with our other two dogs,” he said.
“He’ll come within about 20 metres [of humans], and that’s the closest it’s ever been to him. But if I advance closer towards him in any way, he runs straight away.”
One day, Mr Ritchie was able to snap some photos of the pair on his phone, which he showed to a few of his friends.
“They went, ‘Oh, that’s definitely an alpine dingo’, so I thought I’d post it [online] and see whether anybody was interested in looking at it,” he said.
“There was one gentleman who explained that an alpine dingo is actually very easy to identify, and it’s due to the white parts of its fur.”
Mr Ritchie says the friendship was a surprise – as much for him as his German shepherd. Photo: Brett Ritchie.
In July, he posted a video of the two dogs to a Canberra wildlife photography Facebook group, which attracted hundreds of comments within days and was widely shared.
While some were comments of curiosity, Mr Ritchie said some skeptics questioned if the canid was really a dingo.
“You just don’t see dingos – I don’t know anyone that’s ever seen a dingo in the wild,” he said.
“We’d never come across him in the three years we’ve lived here until two months ago, and we’re more than happy to share the property with him.
“She’s [the German shepherd] never come back with a mark on her, so she’s not being attacked by him.”
Mr Ritchie isn’t sure what attracted the suspected dingo to his property, but he believes the “chance encounter” has paid off.
“I don’t know whether he migrated from somewhere else or he’s been here all along; I highly doubt he’s part of a pack,” he said.
“He’s definitely seeking companionship. We still keep a close eye on the friendship to make sure it’s not going sideways, but there’s never been any aggression shown.
“He’s not doing any damage to anything we own and he’s certainly not damaging the dogs.”
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