Dingo pup thought to have been dropped by an eagle

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A woman who rescued a stray pup thinking it was a fox or a dog has been told the animal is actually an endangered breed of dingo.

The woman sought help on a Facebook group after finding the creature on her bushland property in Bright, 320km northeast of Melbourne, Australia, in August. ‘I woke up this morning hearing a whimpering on my bush block, l can’t tell if it’s a fox or a dog,’ she wrote.

After commenters online failed to give her a conclusive answer, she took the pup, which she had named ‘Wandi’, to the Alpine Animal Hospital nearby. Staff sent off samples for DNA testing and kept him at the Australian Dingo Foundation’s sanctuary while they awaited the results.

A vet suspected he had been dropped into the woman’s garden by an eagle based on claw marks found on his back.

The animal doctors confirmed this week that Wandi is ‘pure dingo’, and will now ‘spend his days at the sanctuary in their breeding program helping to improve the gene pool.’ Alpine Animal Doctors wrote on Facebook that they ‘are thrilled and amazed to learn that we have pure dingoes in our area.’

The sanctuary owners said they were overjoyed to receive Wandi as he belongs to the rare alpine dingo breed.

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