NEW GUINEA SINGING DOG
photography, edition of six

123 x 69 cm

2022

​

"The New Guinea singing dog was thought to be extinct in the wild, but new genetic researchcsuggestsctheircdistinctivechowlcstillcechoescincthechighlandscofcthecOceaniccislands, reports James Gorman for the New York Times.
 

Not seen in the wild by scientists since the 1970s, conservation biologists thought the only New Guinea singing dogs left on Earth were the 200 to 300 captive animals residing in zoos and sanctuaries, reports Michael Price for Science.

​

To find out what these highland wild dogs really were, McIntyre trekked into the rugged terrain surrounding the Grasberg Mine, one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines, in 2016. The expedition produced 149 photographs of 15 individual dogs as well as an array of fecal samples. Per Science, if one were trying to cast a pooch for the role of the New Guinea singing dog, the wild dogs looked, acted and sounded the part." (source: Smithsonian Magazine)