Introduction to Singers
The New Guinea Singing Dog (NGSD) is a wild roaming canid of the Papua New Guinea Highlands. New Guinea Singing Dogs also go by the informal name “Singer”. More recently, due to their very close relation to the Australian dingo, as evidenced by DNA sequencing, the New Guinea Singing Dog is also referred to as the New Guinea Dingo (NGD).
The Singer’s multi-pitched howl is unique and when more than one NGSD is present, they will howl together, each one with their own individual song. Scroll down on this page to hear and see NGSDs sing.
Being a primitive canid, the NGSD is intelligent and independent, though they do form strong bonds with their human ‘pack’. Nevertheless, Singers love freedom to explore and their high prey instinct can cause escape attempts.
Throughout our site there is detailed information about these rare canids. We hope you will take the time to learn about NGSDs, their uniqueness and their possible role in the evolution of the dogs we know today.
In this video, the younger male singer (L) begins the song. The female (R) appears to wake up and momentarily joins in.
Although the female was most likely not aware why the male was ‘singing’, she nevertheless joins in. This is common behavior seen in captive singers.
Listen to a group of six New Guinea Singing Dogs in group howl.
Note the difference in howls between wolf and singer:
Wolf
Singer