New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation

06/11/2026

It takes teamwork to operate a foundation while developing comprehensive science-based international research expeditions. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the person who makes me look good and without her invaluable contributions, the New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Project would hardly have risen to the level it is today. Lisa Wolf, co-director of the New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation, very quietly “runs the show” behind the scenes and deserves much of the credit for the success of this project. Lisa is an internationally recognized canid ecologist, researcher, and author with over 35 years of experience with primitive canids. Her expertise spans neurobiological cognitive behavior, canid-human coevolution, genetics, and wildlife conservation—including field research on prey species like the northern whitetail deer.
Beyond this research, Lisa is a trusted advisor to state and federal agencies, an advocate for shelter and rescue efforts, and a U.S. Air Force veteran who retired after 25 years as a USAF Program Manager. At home, Lisa shares her home with New Guinea Singing Dogs and wolf dogs, but has had experience raising , arctic foxes, and Tamaskan Dogs. We have been working together since 2015. Our different areas of expertise and skill sets complement each other. Lisa Thanks for all you have done.

06/09/2026

This month marks,for me, 30 years of first searching for and eventually researching the rare and elusive New Guinea Singing Dog ( New Guinea Highland Wild Dog, New Guinea Dingo ) My travels have taken me across the Island of New Guinea, first in Papua New Guinea and then in Papua province ( West Papua ) Travel in these countries is not easy. Political roadblocks for foreigners meets you before you even embark on your trip and then again when you land. Then there is the foreboding terrain and altitude in which these wild dogs choose to live and thrive. With over 850 distinct indigenous languages, one has to try to learn the national "pijin" and combine that with charades and sincerity. The friendliness and generosity of the remote locals made all of the hardships worthwhile. The scientifically documented study of the NGSD has come a long way in the past 30 years. When you get a minute, please read the first account, in 1996, from a much younger man, embarking on what would become ground breaking discoveries regarding the natural history and conservation needs of the New Guinea Singing Dog.
*If you have difficulty reading this text, the full article is available. Google "My1996 one mans adventure looking for wild singers"

06/05/2026

This sequence of remote trail cam videos shows a healthy young Highland Wild Dog approaching a cotton ball inundated with New Guinea Singing Dog estrus urine ( Thank you Lisa Wolf). The canid immediately scent rolled on the spot. He circled around and then placed (urinated) his own scent over our original planted attractant. Because of the terrain, we were unable to get close to these wild dogs so we had to bring them to us, with assorted, baits, scents and lures. This handsome male was later captured, immobilized, measured, biological samples collected, GPS collared, reversed and released in the spot it was captured. Total examination time approximately 15-20 minutes. The results of DNA sequencing for this individual ( In fact all 8 animals we captured) came back as pure New Guinea Singing Dog.

06/04/2026

To all Friends of New Guinea Singing Dogs

After years of successful litters, our dedicated New Guinea Singing Dog owners are planning for this year’s and next year’s breeding programs.

We are currently seeking dedicated, qualified individuals who are interested in helping preserve the New Guinea Singing Dog.

While we have multiple Singers in our program, litters will only be planned once approved, serious prospects are in place. To protect the integrity of our program, details about the specific Singers we are working with will be shared only with those who are genuinely pursuing ownership.

If you are committed to responsible ownership and the preservation of this rare canid, we would love to hear from you.

For more information, please fill out the form and send us an email.
- [email protected]
- https://forms.gle/5ANcKTm4rAvag2br6

05/24/2026

This specific short, featuring the New Guinea singing dog from The Creature Cases, was released on YouTube/ Netflix on April 10, 2026. Educating and Entertaining kids. " The Mystery of the New Guinea Singing Dog "

When Sam and Kit get trapped, the Mice Squad steps in to solve the ...

05/18/2026

https://www.facebook.com/reel/251603255479642 Our very first capture was also an escape. As you can see, the trap door on the right side is down. On the left side of the cage, the back wall has been pulled inward. After reviewing the video, the captured animal ( which is also the ginger colored one in this footage) pushed against the back wall and it held, because that's the way it was built. Within 5 minutes, she bit the rear wall and pulled it inward, allowing her to escape. Within a minute she went beck into the cage to eat more of the chicken we left for bait. We rectified this situation by zip tying the rear wall in place. One thing to note: In this footage, when she pauses to urinate, walks forward a few steps and becomes still. Focus in on the upper left hand corner of this video.

05/18/2026

https://www.facebook.com/reel/251603255479642 Our very first capture was also an escape. As you can see, the trap door on the right side is down. On the left side of the cage, the back wall has been pulled inward. After reviewing the video, the captured animal ( which is also the ginger colored one in this footage) pushed against the back wall and it held, because that's the way it was built. Within 5 minutes, she bit the rear wall and pulled it inward, allowing her to escape. Within a minute she went beck into the cage to eat more of the chicken we left for bait. We rectified this situation by zip tying the rear wall in place. One thing to note: In this footage, when she pauses to urinate, walks forward a few steps and becomes still. Focus in on the upper left hand corner of this video.

05/12/2026

Let me first preface this with an apology for the language. I’d like to blame it on oxygen deprivation, temperatures hovering around 3°C with relentless rain, and the joy of climbing a forty-five-degree slope littered with razor-sharp limestone boulders along a non-existent, slick, moss-covered trail. Or… I could simply chalk it up to being from New Jersey.
Our small team was traversing this remote and precarious terrain in search of any sign—any indication at all—of Highland Wild Dogs. Despite the conditions, we tried to remain cautiously optimistic.
At elevations approaching 4,500 meters, every movement became deliberate. On climbs like this, I found myself stopping roughly every twenty steps just to gather enough strength and oxygen to continue. Progress was painfully slow, but it was the only way to remain even remotely productive in these conditions.

On this particular outing, however, persistence paid off. We were able to locate and collect s**t samples and identify what appeared to be possible resting sites beneath rocky limestone ledges. Tom Hewitt

05/07/2026

As a follow up to last weeks GPS post. Adult male, GPS collared male "Bruce", continued to amaze us. Pictured are his activities one day in 2022. With data points recorded every two hours, at one point Bruce ventured out approximately 20km and then returned 20km back. In the 352 days this animal was tracked, were able to learn first of its kind information regarding daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally, and yearly movements. For more information regarding our GPS results, please review our publication. https://www.sciencedirect.com/.../pii/S2351989424004682...

05/02/2026

Wanted to share something with you all, from data points that were generated by one of our GPS collars. Bruce the, seemingly, patriarch of the KDL Group, (that we documented for 2 weeks) was captured , examined, and collared on Oct. 18th 2022. His collar schedule is set at data point collections every two hours. Interesting to us is this particular week Bruce's points seem to be clustering, ( see the point where there are 15 points in one spot ) in one particular area. He does branch out 3 to 7 km per trip, but is spending most of his time in this particular area, 8 km from the area that we thought was his "home base." Any ideas as to why points were concentrated in one area? We continued to receive data from Bruce's collar for 352 days. There is so much more to learn about the activities of these free-living wild dogs regarding their movements daily, monthly seasonally, and yearly. for more information regarding our GPS results, please check out our publication. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989424004682?fbclid=IwY2xjawRi6TZleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF6OEx1QVE5OURoeGRBeXRic3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHlAEL7nmBXhOv4HgbgcfxV6a-3u46NGYYkj6ZyIuAQiWlA3w6eeTDrw13JWe_aem_nR9j0vHPw0WKYR9QXt2AWw