Two dogs of Flores

We were in Indonesia for a very short trip in mid-December. Short because it was our wedding anniversary (silver!!) and we wanted to do something special. We decided to spend it at Komodo Island. I'd always wanted to go there, specially after falling in love with large monitor lizards in the Sundarbans and Sri Lanka. 

Of course I looked out for native dogs as well, but fortunately there are none on Komodo Island or Rinca even in the small villages on those islands. Bali dogs were already beautifully documented by Yvonne de Kock last year, so I didn't bother to click any more, even the resident one at our hotel in Udayana. 

The other island we visited was Flores. We stayed for three nights at Labuan Bajo, making day trips to the national park. Labuan Bajo was disturbingly free of dogs. Our guide Hendrik told us why. A few years earlier the civic police had shot every dog they could see, as a rabies eradication measure. There are many thick people around who still haven't understood that rabies is best prevented with a needle, not a gun. In Hendrik's village the locals had hidden all the dogs away until the police left, but the dogs of Labuan Bajo hadn't been so lucky. 

Anyway, we did see a small group of four dogs, all apparently pets who had come out of the bungalows to socialize for a bit. Here are two of them. The adults didn't have the true pariah-look of Bali dogs. We don't know what the puppy will look like later, of course. Possibly they were all mix-breeds - or perhaps this is the look that has evolved naturally among the indigenous dogs of Flores? I wouldn't know since I didn't go around the villages. I think it unlikely that Flores dogs are influenced by foreign breeds to any great extent. But I really don't know much about them.








































































































If anyone has observed the dogs of this island more closely, please tell me about them. You can post a comment here or contact me through my profile. Thanks!

Labuan Bajo
Flores, Indonesia

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