The New Guineau Singing Dog is named for its unique vocalization. It has a distinct and melodious howl which starts shrill and rises to very high frequencies. Like most canine, it is a social animal. Packs of singers used to roam high altitudes in Papau New Guineau and fill its valleys with song.
Time has not been kind to the singer, an animal closely related to the Australian dingo. Its numbers have been in decline since William MacGregor introduced the species to Westerners in the 19th Century. The last verified sighting occurred in the 1970s. Since then, a singer was photographed in the wild in 1989 but it was impossible to verify it as pure or hybrid. Currently the only known singers exist in captivity.
Because singers are almost unheard of in the wild, it came as quite a surprise when Tom Hewitt snapped a picture of one on a hike in the mountains. Hewitt is a tour guide for Adventure Alternative Borneo. He led a group that was surprised to find a tawny, thick coated dog watching them from a hillside.
“We watched it for around 15 minutes as it continued to watch us. It seemed as curious as we were, but not particularly scared or nervous,” Hewitt wrote on his blog. “What stood out was how healthy it looked upon closer examination with binoculars.”